"Complete the story as fast as possible in Hero/Dark Side. No restrictions.

Timer starts at beginning character creation and ends at closing the final card pack after the final mission."

This timing starts and ends when the in-game time would. I suggest we measure RTA though, if only because resetting to the main menu may actually save time in some cases. See the final mission in my current Dark Side run as an example of this; my first attempt at the mission was not salvageable.