The St. Louis Track Club's 28th Annual Half Marathon made the right move.

By switching to the fall, the race attracted twice as many runners--and twice as much money for its charity partner, Special Olympics. The race traditionally was held in late March, just weeks before what was then known as the Spirit of St. Louis Marathon & Family Fitness Weekend. The track club's race would attract 600-700 runners, many of whom used it as a training run.

The recent race, held Nov. 11, drew 1,137 runners. Combined with a 5K and children's half-mile fun run, about 1,400 took to the streets of Clayton and St. Louis. "We hope to continue such a tradition in the future," said Donna Springer, a member of the track club's board of directors.

Dusty Lopez, 28, the new track and cross country coach at Webster University, won the men's race in 1:10:00. He said he trained with long, tempo runs, "but I didn't really know what to expect. I was surprised how quickly the gap developed."

Tyler Small, 32, of Clayton finished 2nd in 1:13:46, and St. Louisan Jonathan Lantermann, 22, was 3rd in 1:18:40.

"One of the nice things I've found is that it didn't take long to meet people in St. Louis who were still training and being competitive at my age," said Lopez, a native of Trout Lake, WA, who was an assistant coach at Williams College.

Amy Fruland was the first woman to cross the line, finishing in 1:22:37. Fruland recently returned to St. Louis after a 10-year absence and finished 2nd in the Lewis & Clark half-marathon in September.

"I really didn't have expectations," she said of the St. Louis half. "I had my watch on but didn't know what my pace was." Fruland passed Judy Dorpinghaus after about 4 miles. "I was hesitant at first but felt comfortable, so I kept going," Fruland said.

Dorpinghaus, 37, of Washington, MO, was 2nd in 1:23:43, and Mindy Hoehgesan, 24, was 3rd in 1:26:52.

Kathleen Nelson is a sportswriter and columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.