Beautiful runner. Love the colors

My personal opinion is nobody is going to notice your purple and black seams. The visual effects of such a bright French Braid will keep anyone from seeing or caring about the seams in the darker side pieces.
And yes, 96 inches makes it a short 9 foot runner. A 0.8888888 9 foot runner. A 9 foot runter? A 9 foot runnet?

tim in san jose

This is a beauty! I agree with others who have recommended piecing the binding so that the seams are on the diagonal and hence easily disguised.

Beautiful runner. Honestly, with your choice of colors I don't think anyone would even notice the number of seams on your binding.