I must thank:

Brad "Cyberwrath" Cutler: My right hand man, he was an immense help and inspiration. We both worked on strategy and tactics for the run. I'm not sure if he's better than me at BK, but he sure does have more courage when it comes to some situations...
Uilnslcoap: His GameFAQs guide was of some assistance. Many of my strategies for the later stages were based on the skeleton of his guide; the Rusty Bucket route is almost 90% his. He said he is interested in updating it after seeing my run.
Donkey Kong Song: His guide answered all the possible number questions for Furnace Fun. I never even heard of half of them, so I had to be prepared.

Before commenting on the run, I have to say that Banjo Kazooie really stood the test of time. When it first came out in 1998 it wowed easily, and six years later it still looks amazing. It is without a doubt one of the greatest N64 games in terms of technologic prowess. What Rare did with the graphics and music was never matched by another company on the system in my opinion. Even after being spoiled by next generation PC games this game is quite easy on the eyes.

As for the run itself, it is the world record in terms of a single segment run without restarting. Phil Hughes claims a record of roughly five minutes faster, but he quits/saves, kills himself, etc. to skip a lot of time. I wanted do that as well, but Radix insisted I stick to the rules of the SDA and make it in one smooth run. So I ended up with...

Spiral Mountain -- 2:19
Mumbo's Mountain -- 6:33
Treasure Trove Cove -- 10:16
Clanker's Cavern -- 12:58
Bubblegloop Swamp -- 16:51
Gobi's Valley -- 14:55
Mad Monster Mansion -- 15:17
Freezeezy Peak -- 16:19
Rusty Bucket Bay -- 16:44
Click Clock Woods -- 27:71
Gruntilda's Lair -- 35:28 (after taking 2 seconds off to pause)

TOTAL GAME TIME -- 2:55:01

Overall, the run is very smooth. There are no major, time consuming mistakes -- only the occasional hiccups. This was harder on me than Jet Force Gemini, since there are hardly any cinemas in which to rest or go to the bathroom (until after Furnace Fun). Around the end of Freezeezy/beginning of Rusty I had to really go pee, but I held it in for the sake of Banjo fans everywhere. =]

Random comments:

1. Cyber disagrees with me, but I'm fairly sure jumping in the open is faster than pure talon trotting. If anything, it is not slower. I am 99% certain that leaping up hills or inclines greatly increases speed.

2. You can talon trot, jump, and then perform the rat-a-tat move in the air. I did not know about this until I began to speedrun, and Cyber had to point it out. It has some interesting applications (you can do it on a sloped/raised surface to immediately return to Banjo, for example).

3. I kinda sucked in Mumbo's Mountain; I screwed up the Totem and I missed an easy backflip. I went on anyway, though.

4. I missed a note in a tree in Treasure Trove; I was amazed how little time was wasted with that.

5. I was somewhat slow when freeing Clanker from his anchor. Collecting 2D sprites in a 3D, sluggish water environment is NOT fun (the only part of BK that I really don't like).

6. I lied. I HATE VILE'S MINIGAME. Oh my god...it cost me at least two practice runs. Maybe I just suck at it, but it seems to be a huge amount of luck involved. Not to mention, a tie = a loss.

I don't really have anything else to say for most of the run, except that Furnace Fun is rather scary because it can either be really hard or insanely easy. I got an easy run for the most part. The major threats are:

1. Questions that ask for numbers (see credits above)
2. Grunty squares
3. Death squares
4. The action squares

The answers to the Grunty squares are totally random (but set in stone) when the game begins. I talked to three Brentildas so I wouldn't have to totally rely on chance (although I did get incredibly lucky for the school/Grunty nickname questions -- total guesses!). The action squares can be skipped by obtaining the joker cards, but if I miss the joker the run is instantly another 2 minutes longer (don't worry, I got it). The BIGGEST threats are by far the death squares, which can spell instant death if you get it wrong. They're usually easy UNLESS you end up with a Grunty question on a death square...then, well, good luck. =(

I think you'll enjoy my fight with Gruntilda.