Personal Best?

Bruce and I ran a 5k Saturday morning (#8 towards my summer goal of 10 races). It's actually a fun time, once it's all over with and I'm basking in the post-race glow. The actual 5k race is NEVER fun for me. I could go for miles (10, to be exact) at a 6 mph pace, but a 5k for me isn't about that. I try to get faster every time. Saturday's race puts me in a quandary. (Stop reading now if any level of obsessiveness is more than you can take.) My personal best up until now was 26:21, but my trusty GPS watch indicated that the course was actually only 3.04 miles, just a hair short of REAL 5k. Saturday I ran the course in 27:29, but this course ran long, at 3.17 miles. It may seem a small difference, but when I was coming around the corner with my watch reading 3.08 miles thinking I was thisclose to being done with this hell race only to see the finish line TWO BLOCKS away, the difference was huge to me. So although my time yesterday seems worse, my pace was actually the fastest I've ever run (by 3 seconds per mile is all, but better is better, I say.). Thank goodness my Forerunner supports me in my OCD and helped me sort this all out. Bruce was also fast- he broke in to the 23 minute area, so good for him. However, he chased a 9 year old girl the whole race, and couldn't ever quite catch her. That should give him the emotional fuel he needs to keep training.