Let’s kill the Dead Goat’s mascot...(so me)

I was mentally writing my blog in the first 30 minutes of the ride after climbing the COP hill and all I could think of was F#$@ F@#$ F@#$ what was I thinking when I showed up this morning at Cadence after Craig warned me that it was going to be a faster ride, 160k, 5 hours none stop....???? The riders for Saturday were Craig , Pat , Gary, J and me. Craig warned us all during coffee that the group might split into two as he was planning to hammer.. Anyway, I was up for the challenge and agreed to survive for as long as I could. We headed out west towards Jumping Pound on the back roads, then north on private land through the gas plant until the “owner” blocked us with his truck and made us turned around and climb all the way back (we were probably 5 min away from the limit of his property if we kept going, but he didn’t let us continue, instead escorted us all the way back). Well, it was a nice road and very scenery, too bad we could not finish.. Road back to the main road and headed out to Cochrane on more gravel roads.. where Craig and Pat picked up the pace and the tempo 10k to 15k ride was at race pace (at least for me:J)). Quick stop in the Guys Cafe for a carrot cake and pepsi to continue on. J decided to take the 1A back to Calgary as he didn't want to ride on icy this time. I stayed with the group as it was my initial plan. We rode across Big Hills Provincial park on some sketchy icy single track, then some frozen creeks and last some caw shit and soft snow.. it was mentally hard and brutally hard to pedal, but managed to ride it almost all. As we got out of the park we kept going north on gravel roads (I don’t know how Craig remembers all the turns, but I was happy just to follow as usual). The pace was consistent till they just went harder and harder.. I was already starting to think that I was going to be riding by myself all the way home (of course, if only I could figure out which way to go lol)). Kept going super hard and to my surprise I was there, fairly close to Gary and catching a nice draft. (It seems like all I was doing today was drafting, but I had no choice as I was in survivor mode). More hills than I could remember since we were going backwards as I usually ride that loop, but the wind was not too strong and the temperature pretty nice. In the last hour and a half I was already feeling my legs heavier and heavier... So I kept fueling and drinking the last little bit I had left on my bottle to make sure I didn’t bunk or cramp. We managed our way to the last hill before the bears paw neighborhood and Pat just hammered the last climb ! I wanted to chase him, but not a chance... he is strong to say the least and an animal on the climbs. Craig and I turned left towards Country Hills blvd and Pat and Gary took 12 mile coulee south to Candence. Awesome ride today, amazing experience, 130+k and almost 6 hours of riding time.
Got home almost at 4:00pm and Maria and Nick were starving, I had a quick rinse and drove down with them to The Place for a big lasagna and pizza to get back to life. Sunday was swimming time wit Maria in her pre-natal classes and Nick in the kids pool, relax till noon and then back home to finish the stairs.