GCT - reaching goals

So this weekend was the greater cleveland tri. I had thought about doing it a few months back - but quickly realized that trying to qualify for boston and trying to train for your first triathlon in the same time period and still have a normal functioning life - is a bit much for me right now. Steve however - was determined to complete the half ironman. Let's flash back for a minute - and remind all of you that steve is just barely getting back into running - he was sidelined for over two years with stress fractures - and is just recently returning to running - with limited miles - no way he is risking being totally out again by ramping up the mileage too quickly. That being said - completing a half marathon was going to be quite an accomplishment in itself - let alone doing it after swimming 1.2 miles and then biking 56.
Going into this weekend - I felt like i was racing - I was nervous for Steve. Steve - as usual was calm - so unlike me - wish i could learn how to be like that. Well long story short - as everyone knows - they canceled the swim on sunday. I was so sad as I took steve's wetsuit back to the car. Steve is an awesome swimmer - probably would have been one of the first out of the water. However they made them run 1.2 miles instead. I know that the water was rough but it just stinks - you train for a year for something and then they say oh well you can't actually do the event you trained for. Well steve looked good on the first run and great on the bike. After he went on the bike - i ran a slow 2 something miles out on the bike course where I joined e speed for another 5 -- ended up being a jacked up version of my tempo workout. But it was fun to be running while cheering on the bikers - i'm sure we looked goofy. Steve looked awesome when we saw him - so we headed back towards the park. (so did amie and janet -- nice job ladies!) I waitied for steve to make the turn into the park and I made a mad dash to the car to drop my sweatshirt so I could run with him for a bit and get some pictures of him. Well I ended up running the whole thing with him - how's the for an unexpected extra 20 miler this week? ha! Steve did great -especially since he was having horrible leg cramps - i mean like charlie horse type leg cramps. He drank plenty of water and gatorade, took his gu and ecaps. I don't know what caused the cramping. If anyone has any insight - let me know. Well we got to the last mile and I remembered that I had ditched the camera around mile six. So steve said "go get it" I took off running across the parking lot of mentor headlands like i was on crack. Ran to the car - got the camera and ran to the path so I could document steve finishing. He beat his goal time by 47 minutes. I couldn't be more proud of him. He finished what he started - even though he knew it was going to be tough. Anyway - just wanted to say how proud I am of steve - for this huge accomplishment!!!