Alicia Driggers, Carrie Elwell, Jhanine Banzer, Heather Cole, Jamie Tedder, Stephanie Peterson and Michelle Gibbs are known in the SouthShore community as The Biscuit Babes.
“One day, I was at the gym and I was looking at myself, and I thought, ‘I look like a can of biscuits that busted open,’” said Tedder. “So, when we were trying to come up with a name for our team, Heather said, ‘How about Biscuit Babes?’, so we ran with it, literally.”
You must be wondering what kind of team The Biscuit Babes are and what their sport of choice is. Well, the ladies are a running team, and they recently competed in the Keys 100 Race.
“I ran the race in 2014 with a different team,” Tedder said. “I was telling the ladies about this crazy 100-mile race in the Keys I did and they were like, ‘Let’s do it,’ and I told them we could, but we are CrossFitters, not runners per se, but we knew we would figure it out.”
The Keys 100 is a 100-mile, point-to-point running race from Key Largo to Key West. Both individuals and teams compete. There is also a 50-mile option from Marathon to Key West and a 50-kilometer race from Big Pine Key to Key West. All races finish at Higgs Beach on the Atlantic Ocean in Key West.
The race takes place on the third Saturday in May every year. Teams are staggered over a period of hours with six runners beginning in each wave. Individual runners and teams are mixed and groups will leave every three minutes. Staggered starts will result in runners being significantly spread out along the course.
“Our team pushed forward for 17 hours to reach the finish line,” Elwell said. “We had six weeks to prepare for this race. We did some local competitions and some CrossFit events to prepare as well for the race. We did everything we could in those six weeks to prepare for the race.”
The ladies were happy they competed in the Keys 100.
“These ladies are some fierce competitors,” Tedder said. “I know with better planning and training we would compete again in the race next year.”
To learn more about the Keys 100, visit the race’s website at www.keys100.com.
