RESULTS

Start of the St. Patrick's Day Parade Run. Dave Luecking Photo

Winner Ben Rosario said it best after his second St. Patrick’s Day 5-mile Parade Run victory.

“When you’re running down the street and you see 9,000 people behind you, that really pumps you up.”

Looking over his shoulder, Rosario could see a record field filled with leprechauns, potatoes, tons of green face paint, wigs and an inordinately large number of guys who had borrowed their daughters’ field-hockey skirts.

He spent most of the race, though, tucked behind the shoulder of Zac Freudenburg of the 180 Energy Runners. ” I looked at my watch and saw it was 23:18 and decided it was time to go,” he said.

Ben Rosario (right) checks his watch before surging past Zac Freudenburg to victory. Dave Luecking photo

Rosario finished in 24:11, two seconds ahead of Freudenburg. Brian Lyons, race director for GO! St. Louis and the defending champ, was third.

Rosario said he wasn’t sure until Wednesday whether to run. He was recovering from the indoor season, and his two Big River stores have been hoppin’. He’s put in a couple 15-hour days but had a good workout of 1,000 repeats with Carter Snow and decided to give the race a go.

Frudenburg finished second for the fourth straight year, but he has bigger goals. He’s a member of the U.S. mountian running team and will be competing with them. Freudenburg also has entered the GO! Marathon, so he’s more focused on distance than speed right now.

Now that he’s won St. Pat’s, Rosario will head to Chicago for its St. Pat’s run in two weeks. OK, so it’s nowhere near the official day, but the weather there is more likely to be decent. After that, he’s says he’s planning a second Festival of Miles in May and hopes to attract a field that can run the first sub-four minute outdoor mile in Missouri since 1961.

Rosario said he was in the lead pack with Lyons and Freudenburg for the first couple miles. Lyons dropped back, and Rosario stayed on Freudenburg’s shoulder for the next 2½ miles.

“I know he’s in great shape now,” Rosario said. “I used his fitness.

The first woman to cross the line was Francine Nzilampa, a member of the cross country and track teams at Lindenwood University. A native of the Congo whose family lives in Paris, Nzilampa finished in 28:36. Maggie Conley and Julie Lossos were second and third, respectively.

Race and parade co-chair Jim Crowe said he was “awestruck by the site of more than 9,500 runners.”

The results page isn’t the most user-friendly, but here’s a link.

Personal victory: finished faster than my age.