U grad & Matador intern Abbie Mood named managing ed of running site

Abbie Mood, after having run the “original marathon” in Athens, Greece.

Like all the members of the Matador team, Abbie Mood has many interests.

In addition to travel, writing, and the combination of the two, Abbie loves hiking, climbing, and running.

She was recently offered an opportunity to bring all these passions to bear when the founder of the website Barefoot Running asked Abbie to be its managing editor. I talked with Abbie about her new gig via email:

Julie:
How did you land your job with Barefoot Running?

Abbie:
Matador Associate Editor JoAnna Haugen asked me if I wanted to be a writer for Barefoot Running as well as the the owner’s other site, Journey Beyond Travel. After talking to the owner, we decided that with my running background and the experience I’ve been getting as an intern at Matador that I could handle the managing editor position.

Julie:
What will your responsibilities entail?

Abbie:
It’s a new site/blog, so we’re really working on building content (there are two other writers working with me), engaging in social media (Facebook, Twitter), and tweaking the website, in addition to the typical editorial duties of editing and formatting articles.

Julie:
Is it a paid position?

Abbie:
Yes!

Julie:
How did your own interest in running begin?

Abbie:
I’ve been running since I joined the cross country team in high school (so more than 10 years) and started becoming more interested in barefoot running a few months ago when I read the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.

While there are people who run totally barefoot, I usually wear Vibram Five Fingers, which are more like a rubber glove for your foot to protect it from anything that might be on the ground.

Julie:
How do you see this work tying into your travel writing?

Abbie:
Travel writing is where it all started for me, so a lot of the skills I have learned through that as well as the MatadorU course have helped me with all styles of writing and I feel pretty confident branching out a little bit.

Julie:
What other projects do you have going on right now?

Abbie:
I’m taking a course with the amazing designer Sarah J. Bray to make over my website (which may or may not still be MilesofAbbie.com after April 15), which I am very excited about. A big focus of mine right now is working on my own site and developing some content so that I can one day write an amazing bestselling book (perhaps following the footsteps of Matador’s Michelle Schusterman)!

I am also still interning at Matador Change, working on our amazing Focus Pages, and writing about Orange County for Planet Eye Traveler online magazine.

Community Connection:

Do you have good news you want to share? Send me a note at julie[at]matadornetwork[dot]com.