This week on my journey through the subcultures of Doom took me through a familiar territory; speedrunning. Having done this in the past for a course in metagaming, CTS 172, I had experienced the trials and tribulations of playing a game repetitively with speed, rather than fun, as a primary objective. However, with Doom, I find myself using different tactics to play, as well as different skill sets. 
(Super House of Dead Ninjas, the game I speedran in CTS172)
Speedrunning SHODN involved a lot of twitch, split-second reactions, due to each run of the game being randomized to some degree, so enemy placements are never the same. Speedrunning Doom, however, depends heavily on memorization and precision, due to the level structure and enemy placement being constant. The challenge in Doom comes in developing a sort of muscle memory from playing through a level enough to perfect the optimal route through the map.
(One of my failed runs through E1M2, 3 sec over my best time)
Memorization was the easy part, since the level wasn’t too long, and the optimal route is fairly easy to understand. The difficulty for me was being precise with my movement, making sure to hit switches quickly and not hit walls. As a result, I found myself becoming very tilted after several failed runs, because the only thing stopping me from getting a better time was my own lack of mechanical skill. Eventually I was able to hit 25 seconds on my best run, which is 3 seconds away from the world record.
In conclusion, I thought the speedrunning exercise was interesting, but I would definitely never repeat it, due to it not being my preferred method of play.