From Wall Street to WODs: Tim Carroll

February 14, 2012

Heidi Jones

Tim Carroll owns CrossFit 908 in Berkeley Heights, N.J. He placed 8th in the 2011 North East Regional. This Jersey boy, however, is more used to keeping track of fiscal numbers on Wall Street than the number of his max deadlift attempts.
 
​Miserable at Finance
Carroll traded on Wall Street for more than four years where his 12-hour days involved calls to Europe, fast decision-making, and high risk. While he loved the team he worked with, he began to realize he had no life and started to feel miserable about himself.  
 
By 2009, he had been CrossFitting in Hoboken, N.J., for a year when he finally realized that it was time to leave Wall Street.
 
​Two Big Decisions
Only two things he knew were certain: he loved his box and his girlfriend, Erin.  So, like every good financial planner, he mapped out his new course.  In two short weeks, Carroll made two big life decisions—to quit his job and buy an engagement ring.  “I had to lock her in before I was jobless,” he says. They got married in 2010 and while they were dressed in traditional wedding attire, there were definitely mentions of thrusters and burpees by the officiant during the ceremony.
 
In 2011, Carroll’s 8th place finish was not good enough for him. His Achilles heel, Carroll admits, was “my endurance.”  Since Regionals, he has focused on running sprints, intervals, and long distance. His strengths are handstand push-ups, and he says he won’t be surprised to see more technical gymnastic moves in this year’s Games, like a muscle-up to a handstand push-up.  
 
​Laughing at Life
While CrossFit and the pursuit of the Games are front and center for Carroll, he is also focused on his quality of life.  He spends a lot of time with this wife and friends, loves vacations and sipping on Don Julio, club soda, lime and a splash of grapefruit. If he could change one thing at any given box, it would be to incorporate more comedy.  Carroll feels people take themselves too seriously, so he and his wife take their athletes out to a bar once a month, go on ski trips, and generally just laugh at life.
 
One thing many Carroll fans may enjoy is that he isn’t shy about talking about the prospect of naked CrossFit. It is one of the top three events he’d like to see at the 2012 CrossFit Games. This little known fact may have something to do with a business trip he took to Boston a few years ago.  Carroll had an hour and a half to kill and nothing to workout in. In the privacy of his hotel room, he rocked his birthday suit and proceeded to do a burpee ladder. He made the client meeting still sweating and beet red.
 
Be on the lookout for Tim Carroll.  He is one of the spotlight athletes in the North East.
 
Stats:
Age: 28
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 195 pounds
 
PRs:
Deadlift: 475 pounds
Back Squat: 405 pounds
Front Squat: 350 pounds
Overhead Squat: 315 pounds
Clean & Jerk: 295 pounds
Snatch: 215 pounds
Max Rep Pull-Ups: 57
Filthy 50: 19:20
Grace: 1:52
Fran: 2:48
Cindy: 25
FGB: 369
5k run: 24:00
400m run: 1:04