Here are my times:

1 to 26: 6.2 sec
26 to 1: 10.5 sec
A to Z: 3.8 sec
Z to A: 56.2 sec

As a quick note, my 1 to 26 times were slowed by multisylabic names, where A to Z was not, but each had about the same pause (none) between items.

26 to 1 was good, got slightly caught at 20 to 19, but it didn't repeat at 10 to 9.

Z to A took much backtracking. If I had to do it "straight" I would put "can not complete" instead of a time.

=Blue
...you might be eaten by a grue...