what's your backup device? Is it a local disk or a remote device?

I switch between a usb disk connected to my mini and time capsule. Mountain Lion lets you have more than one backup, and switches between them. My macbook air also uses those same two devices.

Once you get the first one done, the hourly, etc should be relatively short, unless there's an os upgrade. Try to make sure the device is local or you are connected to it using a wired connection for the large backups. Just check your exclusions in settings, make sure you aren't backing up backups, etc.

Also, you might want to temporarily turn off time machine backups next time you try the verify. (or do any sort of troubleshooting.)

The site that Cordelli linked to has a ton of troubleshooting info for time machine backups. It's a great resource. Use it.

-David