The starting screen is costing you 2-3 seconds with the latest patch of the game. There may be even better patches, and I may be wrong with some potential time save in other load screens/places, but I can consistently respawn at/under 6 seconds on 4.14. No sphere luck for me tonight. GL and happy hunting.

4.14:

download_depot 1623730 1623731 9138950143375754072

With patch 2.1, respawning to points outside of the starting location is impossible unless multiplayer is selected. I believe that speedruns should be "Multiplayer 'OFF'" but my desire to collect desired locations with "multiplayer 'ON'" is strong and currently I don't see a rule for it.

Selfishly, I think direhowl dash should not be considered a glitch. It is one of the only semi-skill based movement abilities in the game and adds a lot of depth.