Today I broke 2 world records at the grand opening of the new RCN headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee. Both were a sweet victory because of the long history and multiple failed attempts.

The first was for the fastest time to pop 200 balloons with a nail. I first applied for this record on June 20 of 2016. It’s one of my oldest Guinness Word Record applications. I have tried to schedule it at multiple venues but have had cancellations multiple times from latex allergies. I also made an attempt as a middle school in Massachusetts but was slower than the 33-second current record because the wall was uneven and balloons were popping off the wall. Today, I nailed it. (Pun intended). The previous record was just over 33 seconds. Let this video speak for itself.

The previous record of 33.74 seconds was surpassed by a run of 14.77 seconds. I had a couple of bobbles but I’m still pretty thrilled with the outcome. I was especially thankful for all the help since it took 20 people a lot longer than 14.77 seconds to set up.

I then attempted the record for the fastest time to topple 5 targets with a pump-action foam dart gun. I practiced over fifty times today and was feeling confident. After gathering a group of people to watch, the gun barrel stopped revolving creating multiple misfires. I made several attempts, and every time there was a misfire (the barrel wouldn’t rotate so it was dry firing). I was getting discouraged because the last time I attempted this record it was disqualified because my measurement pictures were blurry.

I almost gave up until Jameson of RCN called the local Target and got the exact model of gun that was pre-approved on hold. We took the drive came back and the previous record of 7.77 seconds fell with a time of 3.94 seconds. It wasn’t quite as easy as all that since the replacement gun pulled hard to the right. After a couple of attempts, I aimed hard left of the cans and knocked all 5 down in 5 shots.