I respectfully disagree, its a good idea to make as many similarity's to practicing and competing. To set a goal and have even the slightest reward is in my view to compete. I understand what your saying but again my suggestion is to not put too much emphasis on having an opponent. Belittling the run in any way due to not having an opponent in the chair and ' in a game' is note about the ego. If player wants to state the high run was in a 'game' then that is their business.
I'm very interested to see you write this, Danny. It never made sense to me to say that this run or that run isn't worth as much because it wasn't done during competition. It would be like going to the home of a great violinist or pianist and hearing them play beautiful music in their living room. Would you really say their play is tainted because they weren't playing in front of a huge crowd on video tape? A beautiful 100 ball run looks the same whether it was competition or not.
Now, if you want to say this or that player isn't as good as another because he chokes in competition, then you are discussing how good of a competitor he is, not how knowledgeable he is about straight pool.
Personally, I often play better in competition because I am more motivated and sharper.
Competition is competition, straight pool is straight pool.