The conditions of a race are very different from a thru-hike done for enjoyment. I got the best sleep of my life on the PCT. 8-9 solid hours each night (sometimes I would wake up to eat), and an hour nap after lunch every day.
That sounds like backpacking paradise, of which I am delighted to hear of as a contradiction to my experience. I hiked the New England section of the AT in high school, but our small party included a guy who snored louder than anyone I've ever met before or since. A wet, sucking, horrific noise that to the mind of my light-sleeping sixteen y/o self was surely identical to the sound of a giant lamprey or hagfish, slurping the innards of its living, long suffering prey, still undead after twenty-odd very very long nights...
Try some earplugs next time?
Your comment has me fondly remembering a backpacking trip in Wyoming. We'd go to sleep around 8 or 9 since it would get dark before then and wake up at about 7, and the sleep was indeed the best of my life, like coming out of a coma.