To be honest whether the race follows the new track or goes the old way won't make a huge difference, maybe a minute or two - the new path avoids the sometimes boggy drop down to Sell Gill pot, which is what a 5 minute hop from Whitber Hill, and just meets the Pennine Way a bit further up. In my best grumbly old curmudgeon voice "if I had my way the 3 Peaks route wouldn't follow either of those tracks"