In April 2008, at only her second international marathon, she won the women's London Marathon in a time of 2:24:12. She withdrew from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing due to hip problems causing pain whilst running on 1 August 2008. Healthy again, on 28 September, she improved her own German record with a win at the Berlin Marathon, almost by five minutes to 2:19:19, making her number four on the women's marathon all-time list. This time is the world record in the Masters W 35-39 category. She improved the world record formerly set by Lyudmila Petrova at the London Marathon on 23 April 2006. The previous world record was 2:21:29.