First trail race - need an advice
Hello everyone! First I wanted to say how I appreciate this sub Reddit, it's so inspiring for me! Gives me the strong community feeling, since I was always running alone.
I'm 36f, and started running in November 2023 in an attempt to move my body. In December 2022 I had a bludging disk injury and couldn't walk for a month so when it healed I was so grateful to my body that I knew I have to do sports and take care of it well this time. I always loved running but never had time to be consistent about it - my job was eating all my time. So after this injury as soon as I could, I started running more regularly.
I ran a half marathon in March 2025 in 2:12 time. I was only running and rarely doing some home workouts with light or mostly without weights. I had planned the next half marathon for October 2025 and I wanted to manage it under 2 hours. So I started running more- I also had more time than before, so it happened naturally that in may 2025 I ran 60km and in June 130km. Quite logic, that in July I started having pain in my left shin, the next thing I remember - it hurt walking and running was not even a matter of a question. Then it was a lot of walking from doctor to doctor with getting useless advices like "just don't do anything for two weeks and you will be fine", "it can't be anything serious, you look healthy and you are young". Finally one doctor decided to allow me to make an MRI (in Austria if you want to get it for free you need a transfer from the doctor) and it came out I had marrow edema on the left tibia bone. So I had to walk crutches for 3 weeks. (Never thought it would have such a depressing impact on my life, but it was mentally really difficult)
In November I started going to the gym 3 times per week, doing a lot of physio and coming into the weight training. At the end of December I got stronger and started running - first 15 seconds intervals twice a week, increasing it every 2nd week.
Meanwhile I got into the Mont Blanc marathon lottery and was allowed to register for 23km at the end of June 2026(in a month). Now per week I run three times, lifting 2-3 times, stairmaster 35mins and treadmill elevated walk and run - 35 mins. My runs are: easy run (that gets longer, this week 40 mins), intervals runs (also longer every second week, this week 23 mins), one trail run (this week it will be 75 mins). The mont blanc race elevation is 1680m and I was trying to find enough elevation for my trail runs, which is not easy in the region where I live now. In the last months my longest run was 90 mins with an elevation 280m.
I'm quite worried about this race and about my fitness level and injury danger. From one side I want to be able to finish the race in under 6 hours (otherwise I will be disqualified) but from the other side I'm careful not to push too much during preparation and get injured, especially now in the last and most intense period of preparation. I never did trail races before and my excitement and fear are melted together - I just don't know what to expect.
What do you think? Would you have any tips for me?
Thank you all a lot for reading until the end - and very sorry for this overly detailed and long text😅