With a pint of his favorite green beer in hand, Jim Ekren stood among a group of friends at Lauerman's in Fargo, boasting about his busy morning.
"I ran two races, in two cities in two states, and am still drinking beer before noon," the F-16 mechanic with the North Dakota Air National Guard's 119th Fighter Wing said Saturday. "My God, that's great."
Not impressed, fellow guardsman Norm Nyland of Sabin, Minn., chimed in, "I started (with the green beer) before he was done with his second race."
The men were two of 316 runners that participated in 5K (about 3.1 miles) races at Lauerman's and Coach's Sports Pub Saturday.
Hundreds more joined them in downtown Fargo for the sixth annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.
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And while green seemed to be a fashion necessity on Broadway Saturday, coats were definitely optional.
By 2:30 p.m. the temperature in Fargo had reached 56 degrees, just five degrees short of the record high set in 1927, according to Daniel Porter of the National Weather Service in Grand Forks.
Porter said Grand Forks broke its previous record high of 47 degrees by 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
And the warmth was well deserved. Before Friday, Fargo-Moorhead had experienced 21 straight days of colder than average temperatures, Porter said. The average temperature for mid-March is 34 degrees.
The warmth was a stark contrast to past years.
"We came out and froze," Marg Iverson said of the last parade she and husband Ernie attended.
Bagpipers and Irish dancers joined local businesses in participating in the near two-hour long parade.
They peppered children with candy as they slowly drove by.
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Ellen Mahli, who helped organize the first parade in 1996 and remains a planner, doesn't recall a better attended parade.
There was no parade last year because organizers couldn't get enough volunteers to help plan, but, after Saturday, Mahli expects it to become an annual tradition.
"There's no stopping it now," she said.
Porter said the warm weather will continue today and Monday, but start to cool by mid-week.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Baird at (701) 241-5535
