Alright, as most of us already know, the guys who do QA at Bethesda have beaten Skyrim's Main Quest in 2:16:20, and there's a video on youtube of a guy who does it in ~2:45. Can we do better?

Race: I've got to go with orc for my race of choice: on a speed run, where you only fight things that HAVE to die, your berserk power is available every fight. The QA guys went with High Elves, though I'm not sure what their logic was there. The 2:45 guy on youtube went with Redguard, but Adrenaline Rush is easily replaced with Vegetable Soup, and berserk adds much more to damage than their extra 5 points in one-handed.

Weapons: Dual-Wielding seems like the best choice for damage output. Personally, I think it's worth spending a few minutes to kill Grelod, talk to Aventius, sleep in a bed, then kill Astrid. This gives you the Woeful Blade, probably the best weapon in the game, All of Astrid's gear to sell, and the gear from the three victims she has bound up. In my main hand I like a Steel Mace from Alvor right off the bat, upgrade to an Elvish Mace from the Embassy, then switch to Dragonbane for Alduin. The Woeful Blade in the offhand makes sure my power attacks are absurdly fast.

Armor: I go heavy armor in a fight, naked while running, and I keep the armor on hotkeys 3-6. This is generally whatever steel armor I happen upon until I get to Skyhaven Temple, then I switch to Blades Armor.

Potions: Minor Healing Potions hotkeyed to 1, Vegetable Soup hotkeyed to 2. Vegetable Soup makes you able to launch power attacks one after the other with no waiting, well worth the minimal effort of searching through a few barrels for tomatoes and carrots, snatching up leeks, potatoes, and cabbage from the farm you pass through on the way to Whiterun from Riverwood. You only need enough Vegetable Soup for 1 per fight.

Shouts: Whirlwind Sprint hotkeyed to 8 for fast travel. I haven't timed it, but I think that WWS, wait 1 hour, WWS, wait 1 hour etc is faster than sprinting on a horse then waiting when it's tired. Dragonrend hotkeyed to 7 for fights with Alduin and Ohdahviing. The other shouts are only used when required in quests, like when the Graybeards want to train your FUS RO DAH and Paarthurnax want's to taste your fire breath.

To CW or not to CW? I wondered, recently, if it might be better to try to rush through the Civil War quests rather than sit through the peace summit. The Peace Summit is a really long sequence where you're stuck in a chair unable to make people shut up. I timed the peace summit, from the time you talk to Bulgruuf and he refuses to help to when Esbern tells you how to call for Odahviing, and it runs about 16 minutes... anyone think they can blast through the CW quests faster? Which faction?