Members of the 180 Energy Runners and Big River Running gather before the St. Patrick’s Day Parade run. Photo courtesy of Jeff Bockhorn/180 Energy Runners.

I bet all you guys who checked the forecast Friday night and decided that the weather would be too ghastly to participate in the St. Pat’s Parade Run are kickin’ yourself now. The weather was great, high 40s and a few sprinkles.

Bill Tomber, the race’s registration director, estimated the field at 8,300, smaller than last year but bigger than he expected when he heard the forecast for a steady, cold rain with gusty winds.

The race was even better than the weather. Jeff Bockhorn, team captain of the 180 Energy Runners, gushed about the quality of the competition.

“That was a real race,” he said. “Guys were running in a pack, and taking turns at the head.”

Among the lead group:

• Ben Rosario, two-time Olympic marathon qualifier, and last year’s St. Pat’s winner.
• Zac Freudenburg, fellow Olympic marathon qualifier, who finished third in the world mountain running championships in 2006.
• Brian Lyons, St. Pat’s winner in 2006.
• Karl Gilpin, winner of last year’s Spirit of St. Louis Marathon.
• Justin Kunz, a youngster who finished 44th in this year’s USA Cross Country championships.
• John Aerni, who finished second in last year’s Spirit of St. Louis Marathon.

Lyons timed his moves just right, losing Freudenburg on a downhill and losing Gilpin on a turn into the wind.

Speaking of timing, the chip timing system used for the first time seemed to work pretty well. We saw Tomber and Rosario poring over the complete results by 10 :30. Results were posted by noon on the parade and run’s website.

We couldn’t find the one result we were looking for, though. Katie Sutton, last year’s winner in the women’s division, was making her comeback to running after an eight-month battle with cancer. Luckily, we ran into her in the runners’ village and she was beaming. She reported that she finished in “35 oh-something.” And she said it with a smile. For the mathematically challenged that’s a 7-minute mile pace.

We run that fast only in our dreams.

As for your Jog Blogger, well, she was more of a Jog Blob, finishing in 48 minutes. A tad disappointed. Couldn’t shift gears to work through the crowd and just settled into a halting pace rather than push.

Most of the leaders are members of either the Big River Running Team or the 180 Energy Runners. The rivalry is spirited, and each team wants one of their guys to take first. But, in a cool show of sportsmanship, the teams posed together for a prerace picture. And in a classy move, Bockhorn mixed the runners together, rather than separate them into teams.