Semi DBA-type question

[Guy Werry]

I'm looking at trying to optimize a 'C' program (ick!).  Part of its
processing is the insertion of approximately 69 000 records into one table.
This program typically runs for about 10 hours, unless the inserts have been
done, in which case it runs in < 1 hour.

I realize that inserting a bunch of records will take more time, but one of
my co-workers thinks that someone mentioned once that the overhead required
just to allocate table space for that volume of inserts would be
significant.

Unfortunately, our DBA has retired and so I don't have anyone to ask this
question of.  We are running an older version of Oracle (7.3 something) on
HP-Ux 10.2.

So, if any of you folks with DBA-type experience has words of wisdom, I
welcome them.  And, as a Powerhouse "guy", I'd really rather be writing this
in Qtp instead of "C"!

Thanks,
	Guy L. Werry
	Senior Systems Analyst 
	Hudson Bay Mining & Smelting