We receive a fair amount of news releases about 5k runs in the area, but this one caught my eye. On Saturday, Oct. 27, the "Dirty Beach Mud Run" will take place at the Thunder on the Beach Raceway in Rocky Point.

Participants of the run will have to complete an obstacle course, with some of the obstacles listed as hell hill, tormenting tunnels, muddy muck crawl and quick sand. Thirsty runners can stop along the way to get water, but beer and tequila shots will be available. (Maybe to make the course harder to complete?) Also included: plenty of swag, music, food and a "huge" after party.

Register at www.dirtybeachmudrun.com. Cost is $68 by Oct. 15 and $78 late registration. Good luck to those who enter.

I realize that might be one of the most obvious thoughts I've ever fired off, but as someone who would practically have to be bribed to play 18 holes, I just can't fathom why someone would travel across the continent to pay to play a game.

this piece from the Calgary Sun is an interesting look at Tucson and its courses from a far-northern perspective.

“With the desert, it’s almost like looking at a picture or a movie for the first time. Playing in the desert and looking out into the desert, it’s almost like it’s not real,” said Bob O’Brian, director of golf at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon.

“You don’t go out into the desert too deep because the vegetation all has thorns, so you’re playing in a very refined area but your surroundings are so rugged. There’s so much vegetation and wildlife and things like that. It really is a different experience.

“Our golf courses are maintained perfectly, but you look around at the desert and it’s just a wild, natural state.”

You could say the same about the entire city of Tucson, which is surrounded by five separate mountain ranges. The result is a stunning backdrop for golf courses and memorable sunsets, made even better by the local slogan, ‘When the mountains turn pink, it’s time to drink.’

Good stuff, though I've got to admit that I've never heard that saying before. And from the looks of our bar scene, it seems that it doesn't matter what color the mountains are; any time is good enough to drink.

Either way: Canadian Golf!

No, really — I'm not just making that up as a Cardinals fan, bitter at years of Dallas fans stealing my home team's glory. Check it out.

• Redundancy alert: The site title reads "The #1 Dating Portal For Gay Dating."

According to Yahoo! Sports, this is all the result of the Cowboys front office goofing up the acquisition of the domain name — apparently, they didn't think that letting their fans jump straight to their site by way of "cowboys.com" was worth the (admittedly exorbitant) $275,000 price-tag that they were being charged.

So, someone else swept in, seeing the potential dollar signs, and dropped down a site for men who prefer saddling up with other fellas — with a willingness to serve the needs of straight daters as well. An admirable job done by the folks behind cowboys.com.

My favorite part of this news coming out? The Cowboys are playing the Bears tonight.

The photo above was left on a bike a the University of Arizona. It's good advice if you want to see your bike when you come back from your class. For more tips on keeping your bike and finding if it is stolen, read this.

Arizona is the newest state to get a high school mountain biking league. Find out what that means and when the first race will be.

Check out the cool ride and walk that will check out local architecture around Tucson with guides who are architects. Find out where and when you can join the ride or walk.

For the last five years the Pima Association of Governments has been counting bicyclists and pedestrians in October. They need volunteers however. Find out how you can help.

Well, "national crisis" in the sense that the NFL has made an agreement with its referees, folding them back into the games and showing the replacement refs the door.

But with that said, it's time to get back to what matters — and who better to remind us of what that is than Dr. Ruth Westheimer?

With real refs back halftime can once again be for taking care of sexual frustrations instead of venting about ref frustrations

— Dr. Ruth Westheimer (@AskDrRuth) September 27, 2012

Indeed. So let's remember what halftime is really all about, folks — sexytime with the person who is putting up with you and your complaints about how Wes Welker has ruined your fantasy football team.

Considering how prevalent bicycle theft in this town, it makes sense that we should take a bit of time to figure out why so many bikes disappear from their rightful owners. While there are a number of good reasons (aside from "bike thieves are joyless, soulless humans with unsatisfying lives"), Priceonomics decided to take a look into why thieves make the effort to run off with people's t/rusty steeds.

It seems as if stealing bikes shouldn’t be a lucrative form of criminal activity. Used bikes aren’t particularly liquid or in demand compared to other things one could steal (phones, electronics, drugs). And yet, bikes continue to get stolen so they must be generating sufficient income for thieves. What happens to these stolen bikes and how to they get turned into criminal income?

. . .

Criminal activity (especially crime with a clear economic incentive like theft) could therefore be modeled like any financial decision on a risk reward curve. If you are going to take big criminal risk, you need to expect a large financial reward. Crimes that generate more reward than the probability weighted cost of getting caught create expected value for the criminal. Criminals try to find “free lunches” where they can generate revenue with little risk. The government should respond by increasing the penalty for that activity so that the market equilibrates and there is an “optimal” amount of crime.

. . .

Bike thievery is essentially a risk-free crime. If you were a criminal, that might just strike your fancy. If Goldman Sachs didn’t have more profitable market inefficencies to exploit, they might be out there arbitraging stolen bikes.

Ooh, burn.

For more, including where profiles of bike thieves and where they tend to fence their ill-gotten goods, take a look at Priceonomics.

[Priceonomics - What Happens To Stolen Bicycles?]

I give you the copper helmet:

Arizona announced today it was unveiling these doohickies for Saturday's game against Oregon State, adding yet another layer to the Wildcats' ever-increasing uniform combinations. This goes with white and blue helmets along with red, white and blue tops and pants. Rumors exist of a red helmet, though it's not confirmed to be in the 'rotation' for this season.

And if you think the UA athletic department wasn't going to try and market the hell out of this new lid, then you haven't been to their Web page today.

Seriously. Look at this box image.

• Photo from Nick Underhill, masslive.com

That look on his face is how I’ll imagine him going through life from this moment forward.

Touchdown reception? That face. A beer bong with old teammates when he visits Tucson? That face. Holidays in Aruba? That face. All with his hands down at his side, awaiting an enormous spoonful of sweetened corn flakes.

It will never not be funny.

And, of course, proceeds from the cereal will benefit the "Gronk Nation Youth Foundation," and I hope the rhyming name was intentional.

But really, that's the kind of face that launches a thousand Photoshop challenges. Great show, Gronk.

• Chris Hinkle

Remember all the times local politicians talked about trying to obtain a "Platinum Bicycle Friendly Community" designation? Well platinum is yesterday's news. Now it's all about Diamonds.

Crashes caused by the streetcar tracks have prompted the city to put up these temporary signs alerting cyclists to the dangers of the tracks.

Mountain bike legend Gary Fisher is returning to Tucson this fall. Find out when and if you'll be able to ride with him.

When I go to the gym, I usually just flail body parts around and assume that something is being exercised. Hoping for a more engaging workout, I tried an aerial silks class at Tucson Circus Arts.

If you’ve ever been to the All Souls Procession, you’ve seen the Tucson Circus Arts performance troupe, Flam Chen, perform hundreds of feet above the audience, twirling and flipping amid the pyrotechnics and smoke.

“I like it because I think people see performances and they think that it’s impossible, then they do it,” said teacher, Katherine Tesch, of teaching silks. Before joining Tucson Circus Arts she was a ballet dancer and rock climber.

• Mariana Dale
• The warm up for class starts firmly on the ground with some light jogging.