WINNECONNE, Wis.— It’s a moment Nate Carroll has been working toward for a year: During halftime of a charity football game in New York between the NYPD and NYFD, Carroll completed two sets of pushups on the fifty-yard line.
One set of nine, the next set of eleven, to honor those lost during the 9/11 attacks.
After his last pushup, the sound of the PA echoed throughout Met Life Stadium.
“Ladies and gentlemen, a new Guinness World Record for the most pushups in a 365 day period.”
Carroll was looking for more than just his name in the record books when he started his year-long challenge. He wanted to raise money and awareness for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which pays off the mortgages of fallen first responders.
“That foundation, it steps in if a first responder gets killed in the line of duty and they leave behind a family with young children,” Carroll said. “Those kids that are left behind, that lost their mom or dad, they can stay in that house where they made those memories with mom and dad. It gives me chills just thinking about that in some small way I was able to help some of those families.”
Carroll brought in $40,000 for the foundation but perhaps, more importantly, he brought attention to the cause of first responders and their families.
“He is an unbelievable sheer force of will that was able to accomplish this task of 4,000-plus pushups every day,” said Trevor Tamsen of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
Carroll didn’t let up once he broke the record — he added a few more while still in the stadium.
“After he finished the event he was soaking it up and soaking it all in and we were standing there on the sideline and I turned around and he was doing more pushups,” Tamsen said.
Carroll ended up beating the previous record by over 6,000 pushups. His grand total: 1,506,911. It was no accident that the number 911 will be visible in the record books.
“I wanted to end it on 911 to pay tribute to all the first responders and the people that were lost twenty years ago this year,” Carroll said.
Over the past year, Carroll traveled throughout Wisconsin and beyond to give thanks to first responders and, of course, to get some pushups in.
“Those guys are the real heroes,” Carroll said. “I’m just a guy doing pushups.”
Carroll completed pushups in Colorado, at the base of Mount Rushmore and stopped at fire and police stations wherever he could, to offer thanks. He also had another motivation: To show his children that big goals are attainable.
“I wanted them to see me attack it each day and say, 'Well this is what I gotta do,'” Carroll said. “If I’m committed to it and I work through problems and work through setbacks, maybe it adds up to something special.”
Carroll estimates that he spent around 3.5 hours each day to get his pushups in. While he was able to get out and promote his message across the country, the bulk of his pushups were completed in his Winneconne home.
“Between folding the laundry, doing the dishes, making supper, whatever it was, I would just weave that into my day,” said Carroll.
After dedicating an entire year to pushups, after breaking the record, Carroll was able to take a break.
“Yesterday I didn’t do any pushups,” Carroll said. “It felt pretty weird. It’s become such a habit of mine that not doing them, I felt kind of different.”
He’s not resting for long. Carroll plans on continuing to support the foundation.
"I’m looking at doing the Fox Cities Marathon in September, but I want to do it backward and forward and carry a 100-pound pack,” he said.
Tamsen said Tunnel to Towers is excited to see Carroll embrace a new challenge with the organization.
“We’ll continue to work with him as he goes on to whatever crazy stunt he does next,” Tamsen said. “We’re not quite done with Nate yet.”