It seems like every weekend in Denver there's another fun run with a theme, which is great, really. Sure, there are themed runs (often involving beer before, during or after) in other cities, but probably not with the frequency, participation level or gusto as we can boast here in Colorado. It's an active culture in Denver, and that translates right into dressing up like an idiot, meeting up with other idiots dressed the same, and hitting the bars. After a 5K, usually.

So with the plethora of themed events in Denver, how do you know which one is right for you? We've devised this service-y flow chart for you, Show and Tell readers. And one other thing: If you think you've landed on an event that's suited to your tastes, click your mouse on it and you'll be taken to a slide show with photos so you can be sure.

Happy hunting!

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Photos by Natalie Gonzalez

Greg Paproski with dad Mike and trusty dog Buddy.

Like many twelve-year-olds, Greg Paproski likes to board. But unlike most of those twelve-year-olds, he's focused on longboarding -- and spending the summer competing in races. With the help of his new sponsor, Dregs Skateboards, he's "hit" (longboard lingo for competed) three races in the North American Downhill Series: the Vernon DH (Downhill 8) in Vernon, British Columbia; the Grand Prix of New York in Windham, New York and the Maryhill Festival of Speed in Goldendale, Washington. He currently ranks number one in his region and third in the world of the Junior Division ages eight through thirteen of the International Gravity Sports Association.

As Greg and his father, Mike, prepare for Colorado's big international race, the Buffalo Bill Downhill Bloodspill, we met up with them at one of Greg's favorite shops, BOARDLife, to talk about longboarding.

See Also:
-- Go Skateboarding Day: 303 ways to skate down a set of stairs
-- Denver Urban Assault Ride
-- Top ten people who resembled their scooters at Mile High Mayhem 15
-- What type of Wash Park fitness weirdo are you?

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Courtesy Forge Motion Pictures

Chris Peterson surfs the Lochsa River in "The Warrior" from director Skip Armstrong

This morning Forge Motion Pictures, NRS Films, and New Belgium Brewing released The Warrior, the fourth of five short films in Carbondale-based director Skip Armstrong's series Of Souls + Water profiling a series of athletes and adventurers whose lives revolve around water in different ways. We've been following the series closely over the last four months, and caught up with Armstrong for more on surfer Chris Peterson, featured in The Warrior, and what's next as the series concludes in late August.

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The Urban Assault Ride, the nation's biggest bicycle obstacle event series, took place on the streets of Denver on Sunday, July 21, with competitors racing Big Wheels and BMX bikes along the route. Teams of two set out on a city-wide quest for checkpoints, dropping their bikes and completing a funky and adventurous obstacle course at each stop. Christopher Morgan brings back these photos for Westword from New Belgium's Urban Assault Ride.

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Jim Wills

On Saturday morning, I ventured to Lakewood to experience the Run for Your Lives 5K apocalypse obstacle course. One part Tough Mudder, one part The Walking Dead, Run for Your Lives had 5,000 people crawling under barbed wire, racing through smoked-filled rooms and sliding into pits of muddy water. In between these hurdles were 750 volunteer zombies trying to eat the contestants' brains. Of course, no brains were actually harmed during Run for Your Lives; in this race, your "brains" were the three ribbons on the flag-football-like belt each participant was given.

See Also:
-Five zombie movies that will prepare you for Run For Your Lives
-Photos: Run For Your Lives Zombie 5K
-Realize your worst nightmare with the zombie 5K run

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Walt Pourier is the visionary behind the "ONE Gathering -- Skate for Life" event, which will ramp up Saturday at the Denver Skatepark. Drawing hundreds of young Native Americans from across Colorado and beyond, the Gathering will expose them to positive, community-building activities that celebrate heritage while building hope for the future.

Pourier knows firsthand how much that hope is needed: Though his Denver-based Stronghold Society, he works with youth on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, where alcohol and drug abuse contribute to a tragically high suicide rate.Pourier, a storyteller, graphic designer and member of the Lakota tribe, recently opened the first of three state-of-the-art skate parks in Pine Ridge, with help from friends including Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament.

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Architect of the Capitol

2011 Capitol Christmas Tree

Every year the "people's tree" takes center stage at the various Christmas festivities in Washington, D.C., and this year that tree will be a Colorado native from the White River National Forest. Colorado was selected out of 155 national forests. A celebration starts tonight in Lakewood, with help from Rolling Stone's keyboardist and award-winning tree farmer, Chuck Leavell.

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Instagram user erinbeatty16

Instagram is the latest, and obviously the hippest, photo-sharing app; it allows anyone with a smartphone to play amateur photographer, transforming regular old snapshots into filtered, fogged and color-tinted works of art at the touch of a finger.

Search "Denver" on Statigram, one of the app's web-based viewing platforms, and sift through a variety of local tags like denverartmuseum, denvernuggets and denverairport. This week, we're taking a walk on the wild side and exploring the Denver Zoo through the lens of Instagram users. Page down if you can't get enough of cute animals and even cuter kids.

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Boulder-based filmmaker Hunter Weeks is bringing his new film, Where the Yellowstone Goes, to the Denver FilmCenter tonight at 7 p.m.; the screening will be followed by a Q&A session. Weeks and his crew -- including his wife, Sarah Hall, and Denver-based filmmaker Mike Dion, a frequent collaborator -- spent thirty days floating in drift boats along the Yellowstone, an undammed river that flows freely for more than 600 miles.

We recently caught up with Weeks to talk about the history of the river and why it is worth protecting. (Weeks is donating 25 percent of tonight's proceeds to the Greenbacks, a project of Trout Unlimited, and its work to protect fisheries and waterways.)

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Aaron Thackeray

Big Lebowski fans at the film's showing at the 2011 Film on the Rocks. More photos from Big Lebowski at Red Rocks.

Some things -- such as the growing trend of fried butter on a stick -- are surreal in a terrible way, while others can be surreal in a fantastic way. Watching movies outdoors definitely qualifies in the latter category, but most drive-in movie theaters have gone the way of the VCR. While the seats at Red Rocks, Denver's ultimate half-nature/half-domesticated venue, probably aren't as cozy as those in your car, the view is definitely better than the one through your windshield.

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