It’s not a misuse of the term if it means he has amazing navigation skills and did the Kessel Run in a little as 12 parsecs (distance). I think the reference has he took a risky route via some blackholes.
There's another retcon that's also possible and possibly rather stranger.
There's a spatial effect that follows from time dilation and different frames of reference - Lorentz contraction.
The classic example of this is muons, but it's universal. I'll go with muons because it's a commonly used experimental proof. I may be wrong. I'm certainly simplifying a lot (not least because I don't understand the details
)
So...muons. They're created in the upper atmosphere by the interaction of solar radiation and Earth's atmosphere. They're bogglingly unstable and exist for such an infinitesimal amount of time that even at almost light speed they cannot exist long enough to reach the surface of the Earth. But they do. We have muon detectors on Earth and they register the muons that reach Earth that can't exist for long enough to reach Earth.
That is explained by time dilation - from Earth's frame of reference, the muons extremely high relative velocity means that they move through time at a different rate and thus have enough time to reach Earth. All well and good...but from the muons' frame of reference they are not moving relative to themselves so time passes at a normal rate for them so they don't have enough time to reach Earth. But they do reach Earth, therefore Earth must be close enough for them to reach it. From their frame of reference, the distance from the upper atmosphere to the surface of Earth is hugely shortened - Lorentz contraction. If I recall correctly, from their reference frame the atmosphere of the Earth is about 10 metres thick.
So if the Millenium Falcon was going
really quickly on the Kessel run, quickly enough for relativistic effects to be significant, then from the frame of reference of the Millenium Falcon the length of the Kessel run would be shortened and thus stating how much it was shortened would be a valid boast about the speed of the ship.
It's a retcon, but it's a realistic one.
It's all very bizarre, but it's repeatedly confirmed by experiment. If you want some head bending, there is an explanation of it that leads you through relativity from basic principles. Even more bizarrely, nearly all of it is really easy to follow. There's hardly any advanced maths involved and it's all so logical that it's plain and obvious right up to and including the most wildly bizarre conclusions.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Does-mc2-Brian-Cox/dp/0306819112
It's like looking at a map and seeing that going forward 8 miles, turning left and going 6 miles and then turning back towards your starting point and going 10 miles brings you back to your starting point...and that it's equally logical and obvious that this turns your car into a purple dragon with green stripes that breathes mars bars.
EDIT: I've just remembered a good video about a paradox that arises from this. It's from a series called Sixty Symbols, which contains a lot of very good videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGsbBw1I0Rg
