Odds + ends for my running friends

A few interesting nuggets to pass along before heading into the weekend:

Charlotte's got a shot at hosting its very own SkirtChaser 5K. (I blogged about this race series before the Raleigh event last May.) Our city's chances don't look terrific, though -- according to my sources, Kansas City and Houston are favorites in the voting, with Dallas, Portland and Charlotte "sputtering." Keep hope alive by casting your vote here. In case you didn't know ... here's how the SkirtChaser works, in a nutshell: Women take off first, most wearing running skirts. The guys are let loose three minutes later. Voila! Boys chasing skirt-wearing girls, with the first-place finisher taking home $500. Now go vote already!

Another update on the Get Your Rear in Gear race that colorectal cancer survivor Sue Falco is trying to bring to the Charlotte area: This week, she and her race committee nailed down their race director. It's Paige Hauff, who was in charge of the popular Corporate Cup race for several years. "She's a friend of a friend and I am soooo very excited to have her on our team," Falco says. "Her first BIG task is to nail down a race route. ... This is the hardest part of bringing a race to town. Lucky for us, Paige has done this for so long it's like second nature." Stay tuned...

And finally, I want to point you to a nice profile on Concord runner Margaret Hagerty, written by Observer staff writer Adam Bell. (If you get Runner's World, you may have seen a tiny feature on Hagerty in the magazine earlier this year.) Her story is remarkable: At age 64, she quit smoking and started running. Since then -- in the past 18 years -- she has run a staggering 80 marathons, including one on Mount Everest and one over the original course of the ancient marathon in Greece. She's now 86. Click here to read this fascinating article.