Assistant Tennis Coach Competes In Ultimate Competition

June 2 - (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Carnegie Mellon assistant tennis coach Mike Belmonte took his competitive spirit to another level last month, as he competed in the Tough Mudder event on Vermont’s Mount Snow. Belmonte, who also serves as Carnegie Mellon’s assistant intramural director, finished in the top five percent out of more than 10,000 competitors.

While the Tough Mudder course in Vermont was approximately 10 miles, it was much more than the distance that made it the ultimate competition for Belmonte. Throughout the event, Belmonte dealt with more than 13,000 feet of elevation change, crawled through tunnels, climbed over 15-foot walls, jumped off a 15-foot platform into a frigid lake and ran between bales of hay that were completely engulfed in flames.

“I did it to challenge myself. This was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” said Belmonte, who was named Intercollegiate Tennis Association Assistant Coach of the Year in 2009. “Just hiking Mount Snow would be difficult. They had a double black-diamond slope and I was almost reduced to all fours to get up the slope at the end of the course.”

Belmonte’s time qualified him for the World’s Toughest Mudder Series Finals in December. Competitors will complete the Englishtown, N.J. course as many times as they can during a non-stop 24-hour race to determine a winner. Belmonte is unsure if he will participate in the national event, but he will partake in another Tough Mudder event in Virginia this fall.

“Training for the event has put me in the best shape of my life, hands down,” Belmonte said.