Athlete of the Month

The Team Sheeper Athlete of the Month award is handed out to a member of the team on a monthly basis, 7 or 8 times a year. The AOM is someone who made a notable contribution to the team or did something remarkable. Selection is made by nomination and voting by the membership.

You can nominate anyone and the nomination period is usually during the first week or two of the month. Look for notification that nominations are being sought.  When nomination close, the voting starts and once all the votes are tallied, the new AOM is crowned.

Besides bragging rights for a month, our AOM gets some goodies from our gracious sponsors, such as free shoes from TRH, a massage from SMI, gift certificates from GoRide.

The Runner's High is proud to sponsor this month's athlete who embodies the spirit of Team Sheeper. We are about more than just improving athletic skills and performances.

Terrie Baker

March 2001 Athlete of the Month

One of the newer members of Team Sheeper, Terrie Baker has already shown herself to be a great role model for other athletes, and has been chosen as the Team Sheeper Athlete of the Month. A strong athlete with a positive attitude, Terrie displays a "quiet commitment" to triathlon. She is consistent at workouts, has a strong work ethic, and embraces all challenges thrown at her.

Terrie recently finished Team Sheeper's intensive Ironman Training Camp in preparation for her upcoming races at Ironman California and Ironman Austria. Quite impressive for someone who took up triathlon less than a year ago! Terrie will also be competing and participating in the San Jose International Triathlon, the Big Rock Half Ironman, the Triathlon at Pacific Grove, and the Terra Bella Century in 2000. Her ultimate dream is to compete in Hawaii one day.

What Terrie says she likes most about triathlon is the challenge, camaraderie, friendships and the overall competition. "Although triathlon is an individual sport, in the end the camaraderie of the team and the friendships that evolve is what it is all about for me. It's about attitude and approach in my eyes," she says. Her most memorable Team Sheeper memories are the "Epic Bone Cold Ride" and getting lost on the Circus Club Loop and ending up in the stables. In all though, Terrie says she find the Team Sheeper workouts enjoyable and challenging. She finishes with a sense of gratification and has as much fun with her training as with her racing.

Aside from triathlon, Terrie enjoys snowboarding, traveling and baking. (Secretly domestic, Terrie even owns a sewing machine.) A Registered Nurse, Terrie works in the Cardiac Critical Care Center at El Camino Hospital and is a nurse for the inmates at the Santa Clara County jail. She spends one day each week at each institution. In February, Terrie finished a work assignment at Stanford in the heart and lung transplant unit. After seven years of nursing, Terrie could see changing careers to something more "sports oriented" in the future.

In December of 2000, Terrie relocated from San Clemente, CA to Atherton for a job at Stanford. She saw Team Sheeper on the Internet and decided to join the program to continue her Ironman training. Though nervous because she'd never trained with a team and was new to the sport (just starting triathlon in August of 2000), she found she fit in easily. After a Monday night spin workout in December and her first ever Masters swim practice in January, she was hooked. Though she'd planned on moving back to Southern California after finishing at Stanford, when the time came to make the decision and leave Team Sheeper, she couldn't do it!

A four year varsity volleyball player in high school and a seven year club volleyball player, Terrie appears to be a natural triathlete. Her mother taught her to swim as a kid, and she has picked up biking and running with seeming ease. Her goals this year are to achieve greater fitness, improve her race times and work on her mental tenacity.

Congratulations, thank you, and good luck in the upcoming season to Terrie from Team Sheeper!