Holy shit man, this barrier really pushed me to the limits of my tolerance with this hobby. I can confidently say I will never again push for an arbitrary time barrier as hard as I pushed for this one. Just over 5 years since I started actively speedrunning thanks to this category and 6 days shy of 25 years since I first played it which is neat to think about. Most of that 5 years was focused on other games and categories but this has always remained my favorite with 1:29 feeling like my ultimate goal.

This time felt so unattainable for so long, I really am in disbelief I actually finally got it. I came really close in July just before I needed to step away for some IRL summer plans and I spent most of the fall clawing my way back. I've watched a lot of runners come and go with this category and I'm genuinely stoked to be in the first 50 people to reach this skill level in this game. I first broke into the top 50 with a 1:41 or so and it's been great to watch how much the leaderboard has grown since then.

This is most likely going to sit for a really long time, if not permanently. If nothing else, I don't think I will ever really push myself to get a PB here again, but I will absolutely revisit the run many more times in the future so I can't say the chances are zero.

Special shoutout to how shockingly close I was to missing first cycle Gnasty chase. Notable mentions to my first 12:1X Artisans, first 27 Peace Keepers, and first 42 Magic Crafters.