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Her second race over the distance that year came at the Frankfurt Marathon, where she again finished under two and a half hours to take fourth place.
Her second race over the distance that year came at the Frankfurt Marathon, where she again finished under two and a half hours to take fourth place.
She also took three consecutive victories in the Rome City Marathon. She made her marathon debut that year at the Košice Peace Marathon and managed to finish as runner-up on her first attempt. She received a late-minute invitation to run the Rome City Marathon in March 2009 and went on to surprise the field by winning the race in a time of 2:27:08 hours – over ten minutes faster than her previous best.
The 2010 Fifth Third River Bank Run saw her break the course record for the 25K race, beating Joan Samuelson"s time which had stood since 1986.
Firehiwot took an unprecedented third straight title in Rome in 2011 and knocked over a minute off her best in the process, completing the race in 2:24:13 hours. The 2012 Boston Marathon was undertaken in warm conditions and she managed fourth place behind a Kenyan trio.
She fell back in the second half the 2010 Mumbai Marathon, eventually taking fifth place, but returned to form at the Rome Marathon, where she defended her title in a best of 2:25:28 hours She set a previous personal best of 2:25:28 in the classic distance on March 21, 2010 in Rome, Italy.