The Movie Making Marathon
My involvement as a co-producer of Duke's 24-hour film festival, The Movie Making Marathon (MMM), greatly enhanced my interest in film production. The MMM is a competition of sorts that gives students the opportunity to experience an intense immersion into film making. During the festival, participants are required to film and edit a short screenplay into a short film over a 24 hour time period.
The MMM came to be through the vision of Annie Fleishman and the guidance and direction of Elisabeth Benfey, a woman who I admire and respect for many reasons. Annie and I co-produced the MMM from its inception and it is our hope that our efforts will pave the way for many more MMM's in the future.
Blue Soles
"Blue Soles" is a short documentary of the 2005 Duke Women's Cross Country Team as we prepared for the NCAA Cross Country Championships In Terra Haute, Indiana. In 2004 we won our division championship and placed second in the NCAA X-country finals. In 2005 we again won our division and were ranked #1 for the 2005 NCAA finals in Terra Haute. The women on our team were tauted as the best recruiting class in recent history and this was our last race together as a team. I hope to expand this short video into a full length film in the near future.
Irish Dancing
My adorable, 92 year-old Nonie, Aileen Catherine Sheedy from County Clare, signed me up for Irish dancing classes when I was just 5 years old after I broke my leg in kindergarten. She figured the dancing lessons would strengthen my bones so I would never break my legs again. I trained and competed in dance until I was 16 years old. Little did any of us know that Irish dancing would be the foundation behind my success as a professional runner.