It all depends on your processor horsepower and the number video tracks and type of filters and effects you have applied. More complex projects take longer to render, it's a fact of life.
Without more details on your project, no one would have any ideas how to speed it up for you. And the possibility exists that your renders simply can't be sped up.
Try putting a few clips on the timeline (10 minutes) with no transitions or effects and render it to mpg. It should take about 1.5x realtime (or 15mins for a 10 min clip.) or thereabouts.