The Met's Tough Mudder Team Finishes First In Its Heat in Beaver Creek Race

_{Excerpts from article originally printed in the Vail Daily on Saturday, June 9, 2012 written by Stephen Kasica}

Tough Teamwork: Beaver Creek Tough Mudder Racers Compete Against the Course

Beaver Creek - For most of the 10,000 Tough Mudder athletes compting this weekend, the course is a feat in and of itself.  Some course veterans, however, are in it to win it.

Kyle Griffith and Chad Cusworth make up Team Metropolitan.  The team is sonsored by the Metropolitan Restaurant in Beaver Creek, and has high expectations for its finish.  In 2011, the two were part of a four-person suad that ran last year's fastest time.  They were invited to participate in the world Tough Mudder championship but declined because of a scheduling conflict.

Today, Team Metropolitan is expecting to have a better finish with just the two of them.  "We expect to be as quick as we were last year," Griffith said.  "Our gola is between 2 hours and 2 hours and 25 minutes."

Griffith and Cusworth have a natural competitive instint.  Both played varsity football at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  Griffith played inslide linebacker before graduating in 2006.  Cusworth played outside linebacker, graduating in 2007.

"We've been through a lot of different workouts with football.  It reminds us of back in those days - it's good to have a challenge again," Cusworth said.

Last year, the four finished the 20-obstacle, 10-mile course in 1 hour, 56 minutes.  This year, the course is 1 1/2 miles longer, climbs higher than last year and six additional obstacles.

What Cusworth is not looking forward to is the final obstacled, called "Electroshock Therapy."  In this challenge participants run in foot-deep mud and water, riddled with hidden hay bales, with 50 to 60 dangling wires supercharged every three seconds with electricity.  "It's a little different than when you grab the hot fence on a farm when you're little," Cusworth said.  "It feels like your entire body gets punched at once."

Kyle and Chad finished first in their heat again in 2012.  Here are two more videos of the pair throughout the course in Saturday's race.