alter column size take very long time?
Assuming all previously-created columns are fixed-width like char and datetime, adding column C above just added it to the end of the fixed-width section of the record (effectively a meta-only change). However, recasting it as a varchar required it to be moved to the variable-width section of the record, forcing an implicit rebuild of the table. Paul Randal explains the internals of records in great detail in Inside the Storage Engine: Anatomy of a Data Record.