Two main differences between Noah’s route and mine.
One, once I got down below the Talus on Harvards Northwest ridge I dropped off right into a shallow grassy gully on Harvards west face rather than continuing north down the ridge and eventually onto a very steep sustained rocky slope. My westerly trajectory ended up spitting me out less than a ¼ mile from the elkhead pass junction and I hardly had to use the main pine creek trail at all. Very smooth transition back to climbing.
Secondly, I opted for the Waverly Peak Ridge as my descent rather than the 3000ft 1.3 mile bomb off Oxfords south gullies. The first mile or so was a bit chunky and slow, but once I reached the saddle east of Waverly Peak I discovered an old trail bench that cruised straight down to the CT, no climbing, just an easy downhill grade for about 2 miles. This trail likely ended up saving me about 15 minutes and a gamble that happily paid off.
5 hour 10ish minutes from Columbia’s Summit to Oxford’s. There’s still some time out there, I don’t think the route could have been any more efficient. For a strong runner, the descent of Missouri off its east ridge is no faster than the main trail. It took me less than 40 minutes to get back up to elkhead pass and I was moving slow because of the altitude. That ridge would take an experienced climber at least 45 minutes to do. I originally intended to take the CT all the way to Frenchmen Creek and take the trail up to the traverse from there, but taking the ridge allowed me to get a much better view of my route up Columbia. They are essentially the same mileage, but with an added 1000ft of descent and gain.
Some things I could have done to save time. I took a long break to filter water and refill on calories at pine creek, about 15 minutes. Filter flasks would’ve saved a bunch of time. I also stopped a few times on the last 4 miles of pine creek to pick raspberries. They were perfectly ripe and I couldn’t resist. If I had just stayed locked in and hammered down I probably could’ve saved about 10 minutes.