SSIA’s President, Taylor Nortonwas pretty jazzed to hear he claimed the #1 overall spot in the Shrimp fest 5K, especially since he is recovering from a torn ACL and hasn’t properly exercised in months. When contacted Norton stated, “I had no idea, I was just trying to beat my girlfriend who keeps berating me to exercise more consistently”. Celebrations however ran shorter than expected, due to one sharp-eyed bystander noticing that his time was uncommonly slow to claim the overall 5K spot. After 40 -50 seconds of confusion and muddled conversation it was discovered that Norton’s time was accidentally miss-categorized into the 5K race walk rather than the 5K race run. Oppsy! Norton did turn the results to race administrators stating “As much as it hurt to do so, today it wasn’t my victory”. Unclear how race administrators will handle the news, Norton says he still feels victorious as he did in fact beat his girlfriend who correctly placed 2nd in her division. Norton’s time of 25.05 should place him 2nd in his division of 30 year old Male runners.
Will Ramsey was the only SSIA worker with enough gall to tackle the 10K. It should be noted that his split 5K time would have put him at the top of the pack. After running the 10K, he then went on volunteering at Shrimp Fest as a beer runner. During his four hour shift he overcame adversity of muscle fatigue, soreness, a very cold hand, and a yearning for festival food that he commented “looked really good right now”. He and all other SSIA coworkers played like champions on Saturday.
See pictures below for the SSIA volunteers in action. All tips earned Saturday went to SSIA flagship non-profit the Oyster Gardening Program. For information on how you or your business can be a Shrimp Fest volunteers’ next year Click here!!
