[7] Under the tutelage of Sachiko Yamashita, she continued to progress and was a close second to Yuri Kano at the Sapporo Half Marathon.

[9] She returned for Dai-Ichi Life at the Corporate Ekiden Championships and placed second in her stage behind Risa Shigetomo of Tenmaya – an outcome matched in the final team rankings.

The race was to be used to select the national team, but Nojiri and several other Japanese were allowed as late additions to the 2011 London Marathon instead.

[15] That year's Corporate Ekiden Championships was held in Sendai – an area affected by the earthquake but sufficiently cleaned up to hold the event.

Nojiri ran the second to last leg and, having preserved the lead for Dai-Ichi Life, helped the team to the corporate title.

[4] The Yokohama Women's Marathon in November saw an improvement as she led for a large portion of the race before being overhauled at the 30 km mark by eventual winner Albina Mayorova – although Nojiri took second in 2:28:47 hours, she vowed to improve the end part of her race to be competitive with foreign runners.