Sapporo Half Marathon
She began competing in half marathons in her mid-twenties and won the 2008 Hakodate Half Marathon in a time of 74:12 minutes. Nojiri signed up with the Dai-ichi Life corporate running team around this time. The following year she improved to 70:53 minutes, taking tenth place at the All Japan Corporate Team Half Marathon Championships in the process, and also finishing eighth at the Sapporo Half Marathon (having led early on). She helped her team to third in the rankings at the end-of-year All-Japan Women's Corporate Ekiden Championships.