CANUM Race Report

Luke Merrett -

Alrighty here we go, the Pegasus Slam 2025 has kicked off! For those unaware: the Pegasus Slam is when you take on all 6 of the Pegasus ultra marathons in the same year: the CANUM (40 miles), HOWUM (30 miles), VOGUM (40 miles), PIGUM (30 miles), EDDUM (50 miles) and finally the RIDUM (30 miles). The line up in the cover image for this blog post are all the slammers taking on the challenge this year, including muggins here.

This first race, the CANUM, is a 40 mile point to point from Newport to Brecon, entirely along the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal. It is almost entirely pancake flat, and all gravelly tow path.

If I'm honest the CANUM has always been the one Pegasus race I wasn't keen on joining: I like trails, I like exploring woodlands and mountains, so the idea of a long flat run on hard ground never really appealed. However if you want to complete the Slam you've gotta finish the CANUM, so, road shoes on, let's go 🤘.

Prep & Gear

Pretty standard kit now on my back: Happy Strides shorts (the neon ones), a Running Punks top, Vaga cap, Salomon Adv Skin 12 pack, Squirrels Nut Butter for anti chafing, a light old Under Armour top with some Castelli Arm Warmers to keep the chill off, and Shokz OpenRun Pro headphones to keep me sane.

Socks wise I opted for the Bridgedale T2 Merino Lightweights, a good midweight sock with plenty of cushioning that also run fairly cool & wick sweat well due to the merino wool.

Fuelling wise I went for a straight forward approach: between aid stations I'd be sipping Tailwind to thirst (1 scoop to every 500ml water) and eating a pack of PH Chews every hour. At aid stations I'd opt for some real food to keep my stomach happy.

And most importantly, the shoe choice. I ended up going for my old faithfuls: the Altra Torins, a daily trainer / distance focused road shoe that is a good mix of responsive but cushioned. These are the Torin 8s, recently launched, and pretty much identical to the 7s.

As we'd had such a dry month on the lead up, road shoes were a great choice, in fact these are now covered in dust from the tow path!

Lining Up & Conditions

Fellow slammer Jamie and I car pooled at an ungodly hour to the finish line in Brecon to catch the coach back to the start. Nothing a solid few coffees couldn't fix.

After the off season over Christmas it was AMAZING to see the Pegasus family again. It felt like ever ultra runner in South Wales was there, and both the Slam group and Running Punks crew were well represented. Lot of chatting whilst we all got our gear ready and shook out the last minute nerves.

This year a few of the Slammers and myself are being followed by headline sponsor Bearhug as part of their Challenger programme. Their founder Rhys (forevermore known as "Big Rhys" to distinguish from the Pegasus founder Rhys standing next to him below) handled Race Director duties for the event & got us all ready to go.

Conditions wise it started pretty chilly with a strong wind pulling the temperature down. This would continue for the morning with a bit of a wind chill until the heat took over later after lunch.

Start to CP1

Countdown, all smiles, and we were off!

The trickiest thing about running an ultra on a canal is pace control. It is so, SO easy to go out too fast. Even a gentle feeling pace ends up creeping up over time.

We met our first feral geese early on with 3 blocking the path. Thankfully all managed to dodge the beaks and continue unimpeded.

For the first stretch I kept a solid pace, trying to stay nearer the front of the pack but not completely gassing myself. Came into CP1 to see Aimme and Dean volunteering with Chris Silvester, whilst both Rhys' were there cheering folks on. Grabbed a quick water refill (thank you Chris 🙏), a mouthful of snacks, a big Rhys fist bump then left sharpish.

CP1 to CP2

Kept the pace up at around 05:20-05:30/km until CP2, it felt fairly sustainable at the time. The views opened up on this stretch as you ran with the Black mountains to your right, a beautiful sight.

CP2 was run by the excellent Kev and Mad Running Junkies, here I got some more water and snacks, along with a nice motivational chat with Kev before heading out.

CP2 to CP3

Switched gears here and slowed to a 06:00-06:30/km pace. I realised I was at risk of blowing up as the day started to heat up, and my legs, especially my thighs, were starting to struggle.

Hit the half way point of 32k in 03:02, which is bloody insane. Just shows it's easy to keep a consistent solid pace on a canal path....until it isn't.

Reaching CP3 around 38k I was treated to a sight many an ultra runner dreams of: a She Runs Cardiff checkpoint. Filled with home made snacks, cakes, salty potatoes and the loveliest folks you can imagine.

Sat down here, refilled my bottles, took off layers and put on suncream. The day was warming up, and it was about to get real.

CP3 to CP4

Leaving the checkpoint I'd been caught by a few folks, including Wolfgang from the Running Punks and Russell Bailey who'd kindly helped me at the half way aid station during the Epona.

I realised that, if I could keep pushing a little, I'd be on for a 50k PB. I used that a motivation to get myself moving, despite really wanting a longer break now. Managed to catch and pass Russell, never saw Wolfgang again though.

Saw Aimme and Dean again hanging out on a bench saying hi to folks. Really wanted to stop and get a selfie with them, but was in a world of "just keep pushing til that says 50.00" so waved and kept going.

Hit 50k in 05:08:05, new PB 🎉!

Here I promptly crashed. The heat was getting to me a bit, as was the pace and hard ground, my legs were not happy.

Reached CP4 shortly after the 50k mark, refilled my bottles, dunked my head a bit and got going.

Big mistake here: should have sat down and focused on getting some water and food in me. Leaving in a hurry was dumb. I'd already felt myself starting to turn, but knowing there was only (heh only) ~13k left I wanted to get moving.

CP4 to Finish

The last 13k were the longest, most soul destroying deathmarchy miles I've felt since...ever really. It was the scenery, it was just relentless, you don't feel like you're making any progress. Just the same canal, over and over again, stretching into the distance, forever!

Was definitely struggling from heat exhaustion here, I wasn't able to drink my water or get food in, which contributed massively to the death march feeling. Ended up jeffing it in most of this stretch with an average pace of around 07:30/km or slower.

Somewhere coming in to Brecon, as I was feeling particularly sick, I saw these metal flip lids. One had been left open, and I didn't realise but they cover drinking water taps! I shamelessly threw myself under and got properly drenched. I could have proposed to that tap then and there.

Used a couple of these on that last stretch to keep me going.

Passed by a few other folks and didn't have the drive left to try and regain the place. Just wanted to jeff it in now.

Approaching the last km I saw someone off in the distance running behind me. That gave me the last little push I needed to at least jog it into the finish.

I think the finish line photos speak for themselves!

After Action Report

One thing I'm proud of is the pace I was able to maintain to the half way point. You can see where, at CP2 (25k) I consciously chose to slow it down a bit, and was able to maintain that slower pace right to the 50k point. It's when the heat got to me, where I'd mismanaged my fluids and body temp, at the 52k point where you can see the pace drop off a cliff.

The dip near the end at 63k was where I was bathing under taps 😂

What Went Well

  • The shoe choice was bang on: some comfortable well cushioned road shoes from Altra with a neutral feel and wide toe box
    • Due to it being so hot that month the canal path was bone dry, no lugs required
    • Trail shoes would have been too fatiguing for sure
    • Loved the comfy roomy fit of these, they have been my road shoes for years and this solidifies why
  • Performance up to the 50k mark: was able to maintain a solid pace until the heat got to me
  • Layer management: as the day heated up I was much better at shedding layers and stashing them in my pack, didn't feel like I was overly sweating
  • Nutrition: the Tailwind combined with PH Chews worked nicely, giving me a little wiggle room to eat at aid stations without feeling bloated

What Could Have Gone Better

  • Heat exhaustion: I'm super prone to it and need to be better at stopping, resting and getting my body temperature down
    • It didn't help that I really treated this one like a race, I pressured myself to keep pushing when a longer sit down would have likely improved my overall time
  • Stomach turned due to the above, when you can't get water in that's when things derail quickly
  • I could have done with more training on flat hard ground over longer distances, that would have helped prevent the muscle aches I got from the mid way point

Damage

  • Very sore legs, especially my thighs and knees afterwards
  • The bottom of my feet were very tender from the hard ground
  • Had a pain on the inside of my right knee, like I'd twisted it wrong at some point
  • However this all shook out by Tuesday after a few hikes and a hobbling run
    • Walking round the woods with the kids on the Sunday was the best possible recovery

Lessons

I need to get a better handle on my heat strategy, figure out ways to reduce my body temperature to stop the snowball effect of losing the ability to drink water. It's something I've gone through a few times, I think even though I'm drinking to thirst I'm still not drinking enough water to hydrate properly, along with not taking enough breaks to reduce my heart rate.

Thank Yous

A massive thank you to Rhys, Cerys, Nye and all the volunteers on the day that make these events possible.

I was really glad to find out that, this year, volunteering for a Pegasus event nets you a pin badge version of the medals, as modelled by Chris here:

Next?

The second event in the slam, the HOWUM, has crept up and is only a week away now! Then it's a meagre 2.5 weeks to the Wild Horse 200, a crazy, epic, bonkers adventure I am definitely not ready for, but am looking forward to nevertheless.