Is the increase in load times consistent and exactly know for physical vs. digital? I've heard the difference is as much as 40 seconds.

@tubiek No he's referring to the load time differences in full game categories between having a digital copy versus a physical copy of the game. Individual Levels in this game have nothing to do with load times because we use the In-Game-Timer anyway.

If the difference is that great, surely the top tier runners would have found this out by know.

Digital will always be faster than a physical copy of the game. That's a mostly consistent fact. If you want to be truly competitive you'll purchase the digital copy of this game if you haven't already. Just a fact of life.