By Karla Herrera

Google “Kristen Henehan” and articles now appear from the Washington Post, USATODAY, ABC 7 News, TheHill, ESPN, and numerous blogs (just to name a few from the bunch) -- all praising her recent accomplishment.
            On Sunday October 29th Kristen Henehan won the women’s division in the 32-year-old Marine Corp Marathon, finishing her first 26.2-mile race in 2 hours 51 minutes and 9 seconds. To finish in less than three hours, Henehan maintained an average pace of less then seven minutes and never walked. 
            If you were looking for other stories on Henehan’s running triumphs you wouldn’t find much. The reason for this is simply, Henehan is Gordon.  On the other hand, Google “Kristen Gordon” and eight years of running history overload the search engine.
Henehan may have won her first marathon, but she is no novice to the running community. This marathon was the debut race for a woman whose name recently changed after marrying in 2006. She shocked the running community by winning the marathon as a rookie, but it was no surprise to those who knew her by her maiden name.
“Its harder to just go out there and run when people who know who you are – it can become hard to keep it fun and not let the expectations get to you,” said Henehan. “There was something about putting out a new name.” This was a new beginning—a new chance to continue her passion for running and competing.
And so it was in 2007: Out with the old and in with the new.
Kristen Gordon Henehan began running cross-country and track competitively as a freshman in Alamo, CA where she became a national champion as a senior in the 1996 Footlocker Cross Country Championship.
Henehan has what former co-worker and friend, Sarah Oliphant, describes as “a gift.” Focusing on this gift meant that a young Henehan had to abandon her other athletic interests: swimming, basketball, softball, and soccer.

“It was very difficult to give up soccer because I loved playing it, but I knew that I was more talented at running,” said Henehan, and during her junior year in high school she chose to focus on her passion for running.
Henehan would acquire many more elite titles while at Georgetown University from which she graduated in 2001. She was highly regarded for her unmatched talent and finished her career as a three-time All- American and a team captain in 2001.
Pat Henner, currently the head coach for the Georgetown track team, remembers the uniqueness of Henehan as being two-fold: “First, she had a physical gift and was physically talented. Second, it was her competitive spirit. She was an intensely competitive athlete and always wanted to do a great job for the team.”
It could have been her “physical gift” or her “competitive spirit,” but it was her “love for pressure” that a Georgetown publication, “TheHoya,” quoted as the means for her success.
  Eric Kim, author of the article GU Runners Continue Winning Tradition, quoted Henehan as saying, “I feel like a typical college student… running is only an addition.” In college, this “addition” meant Henehan ran an average of 75 miles per week for cross country alone. Henehan also ran indoor track in the winter, outdoor track in the spring, and prepared for fall cross country in the summer. The running never ceased and Henehan was anything but a “typical college student.”
“The most important thing is to not burn out. You are running all year around – you have to remember to do it for yourself and no one else,” explained Henehan, “when you are running that much your motivation can get lost along the way and that can take the joy out of the sport.”
            Michael Henehan, a former Georgetown Lacrosse player and the man who gave her the new name, said, “ I knew Kristen was good at running and had a good outlook on everything. She was not insane. Some people get a little to into what they do in sports -- Kristen took it in stride. She was really good at it, but it wasn’t 100 percent of her life – she was not consumed by it.”
            In running there are two sentiments: hate it or love it.
According to Henehan she “has always loved running,” but admittedly remembers being somewhat “burnt out” her senior year in college. “I started running under the expectations of everyone else, and forgot that it is simply about running circles around a track.”
Perhaps because of her many successes, Henehan regards her greatest challenge as “being able to not let the expectations that people have for you affect you in a negative way.  Remembering that you have to keep the drive and the work ethic to get to that point again.”
So the question: How do you ignore the expectations set by everyone else and run for yourself? For Henehan her answer was to take a break, have fun, and get married.
Coach Henner was not surprised to hear that his former runner had won the marathon. “I know she was really looking to get back and have fun with her running. With all talented athletes if they are having fun they are going to do well. That gave her the opportunity to win the race and she took advantage of that.”
After not competing since 2001, Henehan was re-entering the running world—unknown. The name on her bib would be unrecognizable to many running gurus.
“The beauty of the marathon was that I hadn’t competed in so long and enjoyed it, I just wanted to finish the marathon and want to run another one after it,” said Henehan.
For most, the speed that Henehan finished her race in is unimaginable, but for her it was simply logical. “The less you are on your feet the less pain you will experience.”
Henehan trained with the independent invitation-only running group for elite women and men called Pacers in Washington – a running organization that provides opportunities for the participants to train or run in groups.  Her workouts generally consisted of Wednesday nights at the track and long runs on Sunday for about three months. The most she had ran before the race was only 22 miles.
Oliphant explained that she knew of the “how close [Henehan] held running to her heart, with both dedication and commitment.”
“The combination of her natural ability and her never-give-up attitude was the perfect formula for a marathon winner,” says Oliphant.
And so with no expectations no pressure and no history rookie Henehan wins the race.