Recumbent or road bike?

Eyerace

I currently own a Sun Easy racer recumbent. I have had it for a year and put a thousand or so miles on it and I really like it. But, its top cruising speed (for long rides) is only about 15mph. And thats just my personal speed according to my fitness level of course. But I consider myself in pretty decent shape. When i ride with my road bike friends i cant come close to keeping up. I contribute its lack of speed to its weight and the angle of my pedal push. (no gravity to assist)

I rode a Cannondale mountain bike before the bent and it was even slower plus the arm, hands and back pain. I have been looking at Specialized road bikes in the $700-$800 range and they look sweet. I know it will travel at a nice fast pace but I dont want to go back to the same old butt, back, and arm problems. Some of the road bikes I looked at had the elbow rests, do those help a lot? I ride mostly paved bike trails. I really want a road bike but the bent seat is like a big couch cushion...lolol Im 34 yrs old and not sure if my but can reform back to the old moutain bike seat shape.

I am trading the bent in to get the road bike so its one or the other. And I was supposed to go test ride the road bikes yesterday but we had 2 tornadoes go through our town the other night and its all tore up. But i will be going there in a couple days, so I will know more about how much I like the feel of the road bike after I test ride a couple miles I hope.

Any help would be great. Thanks in advance. Sorry for the long post.