For Runners’ Edge Athlete Ambassador Galen Hecht, trail running is about more than racing. It’s a way to explore Alaska, challenge himself in the mountains, and keep finding out what he’s capable of.
Since moving to Alaska in 2020, Galen has become an active part of the state’s mountain running community. He races everything from mountain ultras to technical alpine objectives, serves on the board of Alaska Mountain Runners, and spends his winters skiing to build a strong year-round aerobic base. He also balances all of that with a full-time career as a software engineer and project manager.
As a Runners’ Edge Athlete Ambassador, Galen shares on of our values: train for the things you love and take care of your body along the way.
This summer, he put that philosophy to the test with a 21+ hour traverse of the Chugach Front Range, followed by a trip abroad for UTMB mountain race in Europe.
We sat down with Galen to talk about Alaska trail running, building fitness, preparing for ultra marathons, tackling big mountain objectives, and what it takes to stay healthy for the long haul.
From New Mexico to Alaska’s Mountain Running Community
For those who may not know you, how did you find your way into mountain running in Alaska. What has kept you here?
I moved to Alaska from New Mexico in 2020 when my partner Emma started graduate school up here. I had been running for 7 or 8 years prior to that, mainly as a way of exploring the areas where I lived, but in 2019 I started racing and did pretty well at a classic mountain race in New Mexico called La Luz. I then won a local 50km mountain race in my hometown of Santa Fe, and I was hooked! When we moved to Alaska, I quickly learned that Alaska has a very vibrant mountain running community, and I’ve gotten increasingly involved over the years both racing and serving on the board of Alaska Mountain Runners, which organizes the Alaska Mountain Running Grand Prix. Emma and I both feel at home in Alaska now, and we’ve hardly scratched the surface of all the adventures here.
Building Trail Running Fitness in Alaska
Alaska’s trail running season can feel short, especially when you’re training for long mountain races. Galen takes a distinctly year-round approach, using skiing to build fitness before gradually transitioning into higher running volume in the spring.
Alaska’s running season is short. How do you approach building fitness and making the most of the summer months?
I ski a lot in the winter in the backcountry and increasingly cross country, which I learned after moving here. Both of these are great for building a strong aerobic engine and just super fun. In the spring, usually April, I start to transition from 1-2 days of running coupled with big ski days when conditions allow, and over a month I ramp up to 5 or 6 days running as the skiing peters out. The transition can be a challenge because it’s easy to overload with running, so I try to transition steadily and take good care of myself, do strength training, and usually make a visit or two to Runners’ Edge to make sure I am tuned up well for a big summer of training and racing.
With that kind of volume, how do you balance pushing your limits with staying healthy?
This is always hard, also because I juggle a full time job as a software engineer and project manager, which can be pretty stressful at times. During my biggest training weeks of the year, I’ll often work 40 hours and train 20, maybe even close to 30 hours. I find myself really close to my limits during these moments, so I approach these volumes sparingly, usually as a planned training camp. It’s really important to listen to the signals I get from my body. If I start to feel an injury coming on, I focus on recovery and rehab if necessary. If I am just super tired and low energy, I’ll prioritize sleeping and eating plenty.
Training for the Parts of Racing You Can’t See
Getting faster isn’t always about adding more intensity. For Galen, successful ultra and mountain racing comes down to preparing for everything that happens beyond the fitness itself.
When you’re preparing for a big race, what are the things you focus on that most runners might overlook?
It’s really common for runners to go a bit too hard on easy run days, especially with the endless competition of platforms like Strava. I do a lot of very easy pace running. During a 20 hour week, I might spend 19 hours running or hiking at a gentle, conversational pace and just 60-90 minutes at any kind of intensity. That works out to only 5-8% of my time at high intensity, and this is what allows me to reach bigger training volumes for ultra marathons without getting injured. Another thing I try to do is train all the non-fitness elements of a race. I’m almost never the fastest person lining up for a race, but I might have an edge if I’ve trained my gut and made a good nutrition plan, visualized the course — most importantly getting through the low moments, tested and honed my equipment, and established a good race plan.
What’s one racing lesson you learned the hard way that changed how you approach competition?
I used to cramp in nearly every race. Many people told me to take more electrolytes, and I tried, taking two or three times the serving size of many of the common sports drinks, which is usually about 250mg of sodium, but it never helped. Then a couple years ago, I learned that some runners can sweat out 1500-3000mg of sodium per hour, or even more, in a race. I am a salty sweater so I started experimenting with much higher doses of electrolytes and it worked and has really helped me in races.
Before a race, how do you mentally prepare for the moments when things inevitably get difficult?
I spend some time visualizing how I will respond at the lowest moment of the race. When I am sick to my stomach, with blisters on my feet, fatigue in my legs, a tired mind, and things aren’t going well, how will I respond? I tell myself that I just need to take care of myself to control the things I can and accept the things I can’t, and I visualize pushing through the discomfort. This doesn’t always work, but I find this rehearsal of how to respond to difficulty really helpful, because racing is never easy.
21+ Hours Across the Chugach Front Range
If you’ve spent any time around Anchorage’s trails and mountains, you know that Alaska offers a different kind of running. Technical terrain, unpredictable conditions, elevation, weather, and long stretches between aid or water can turn a run into a serious mountain objective.
For Galen, one of those objectives had been years in the making.
You completed a traverse of the entire Chugach Front Range this summer. What inspired you to take on that challenge?
I’ve been excited about trying the Front Range linkup, AKA Cosmic Integration, since I moved to Anchorage in 2022. My friend Lars Arneson had set the record on the 12 peak linkup during the pandemic, and I saw the Linkup as a right of passage, but wanted to develop a route well before taking it on due to the technicality and difficulty. I was also a bit daunted by the addition of Ptarmigan as a 13th peak when it was established as being 5,000ft high and added to the linkup.
What did the preparation for an effort like that actually look like?
The effort looked like a lot of time scrambling through technical and often exposed terrain peppered with a few great glissades and running through the valleys and along the ridges of the front range. I’ve been planning my route for years with a lot of help and insight from friends. Early on when I moved here, I started by learning the names of all the peaks so I could recognize them all, then I drew some routes on a map before scouting the routes between them. Some of the links are easy, but a few are difficult, and there are variations on the route, so you need to get up there to see them and figure out which route makes sense for your comfort level in exposed terrain and based on conditions. I also had a lot of insight from friends who had done it previously. Once I had my route, I picked a timeframe that made sense with my race calendar, and I practiced my strategy for gear, fueling, and hydration on some big scouting runs. The route I used stays high most of the time, so water refills are scarce, which meant I had to have a good strategy for when to fill up with water and to bring enough to get through the run.
What was the hardest part of the traverse, and what helped you keep going?
My goal was 17 hours, and it took me over 21 hours, which was really tough. I did the Linkup in June, earlier than most of the people I know who have done it who typically did it in mid or late July. I was on pace for the first half and had some great snowfields to glissade down, but I encountered really tough snow conditions in the second half that used a lot of energy and made the going much slower than I hoped. I ran out of food and got pretty dehydrated, so I bonked really bad going out to Temptation peak. That was a really low point. My partner Emma, and friends Owen, Miles, Chad, and Adam were waiting for me near the end, and that support really helped me push through.
What did the experience teach you about your physical and mental limits?
I had never been in exposed terrain on poor quality rock for so much time and while my body was so tired. The ability to problem solve, route find, and stay focused after so many hours of difficult alpine traversing, especially when I was bonking, gave me a lot of confidence for what I can handle and what my limits are, which will transfer well to ultra trail and mountain racing.
What Comes After the Big Goal?
The Front Range traverse was only one piece of Galen’s summer. His bigger season goal was UTMB, a 107-mile race around Mont Blanc.
After a season of big objectives, what’s next?
My big season goal was to race UTMB in Europe. Unfortunately I had a stomach bug the week before, and I went into the race a bit depleted and decided to drop when my hip got quite inflamed half way through the 107 mile, 31,000ft course. I intend to return to UTMB to close the loop around Mont Blanc someday, so that is a big goal, but at this point, I am looking at what I can do to recover and be resilient after UTMB. I’ve struggled to travel to big races and execute well on the day, so I am thinking through better strategies to show up healthy, so I can reach my potential for my big goals. In the meantime, I’m really looking forward to autumn in Alaska as I figure out what’s next.
Staying Healthy for the Long Haul
For an athlete who spends this much time running, hiking, scrambling, skiing, and climbing through Alaska’s mountains, injury prevention isn’t an afterthought. It’s part of the training.
With the mileage, elevation, and technical terrain you tackle, how do you stay feeling your best? And how has PT helped?
It’s easy to overcomplicate training and recovery, but the fundamentals are the most important. Eat and hydrate well. Build volume slowly and balance volume and intensity. Rest and sleep well, and listen to your body. A big part of racing ultras is problem solving, and training is the same. If you have an injury, seek help! PT is invaluable and can resolve issues early. Also, at a clinic like Runner’s Edge, the care goes well beyond rehab and gets into sports performance, so getting input on how to strength train, improve performance, and proactively prevent injury has helped me tremendously.
What’s something outside of running that has made the biggest difference in your performance?
Sleep. When I am training a lot, I try to sleep at least 8 hours a night, and this really helps with recovery. It’s simple, but it makes a huge difference for recovery and prevents burnout, especially when juggling training and full time work.
Train for the Adventure
Galen’s approach to mountain running is a good reminder that the goal isn’t always the race itself. The summit, the traverse, the finish line—they’re the destination. The majority of the journey happens in training.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to become a stronger mountain runner, or simply get out and explore more of Alaska, what would it be?
As a mountain athlete, you’ll spend way more time training than you will spend competing or accomplishing a single objective. But having a goal — be it a summit, a linkup, or a race — gives meaning and purpose to your training so you can have a steady commitment to your journey, even on the difficult days when the wind and rain are driving.
Want to Trail Run Like a Runners’ Edge Athlete Ambassador?
You don’t have to be training for UTMB or planning a 13-peak Chugach traverse to benefit from a smart approach to trail running.
Whether you’re building mileage for your first trail race, preparing for an ultramarathon, tackling Alaska’s mountain trails, or simply want to stay strong and healthy for the activities you love, Runners’ Edge can help you build the strength, fitness, and resilience to keep doing them.
Want to trail run like a Runners’ Edge Athlete Ambassador? We can help.
Ready to train smarter, stay healthy, and get after your next Alaska adventure? Let’s get you there.
