Big Swim/ Big Hurt/ Big Dad

It has been a little over 7 hours since I reached the shoreline at Anderson county park after doing a 6 mile swim. I am barely able to keep my hands on the keyboard. This was the hardest thing I have ever done. I think it would have been easier had a couple things been different. First of all, after getting to the park to start the swim, I tried to put in my contact lenses. Well, one was missing, later to be found on my living room floor-hard and missed shaped. So during the swim I couldn't see a thing. This is bad for many reasons, I am scared to death of what I cant see. and for this very reason I was imagining all sorts of animals right under me. The other reason it was bad was because I couldn't see where I was going, which my the trip seem so long. I was about ready to give up when, as a team, we decided that I should follow right behind a red kayak which I could see. This helped so much, yet damaged me as well. It helped because now my focus was on the red kayak and not the unknown beneath me. I even started to play a game with my self where I would try to touch the kayak. This is the part that killed me later on in the swim. I was trying so hard to touch the kayak, which would ALWAYS stay a couple feet ahead of me, that I was swim pretty fast for the first 3 miles. I even left behind the rest of the group. At the half way point I was exhausted and my shoulder started to hurt. The last 3 miles I was still focused on the red kayak but I gave up my game. The last mile was what really did me in. As the waves from nearby boats would rock me, I would find myself helplessly rolling in the water onto my back. I could barely think and by now my arms were either in excruciating pain or numb. The last 50 yds, Kathy, my red kayak guide, told me to look to the shore line. There was my dad, cheering me on, telling me how great I was doing, and telling me just a little more to go. My dad saved me. How did he know? How did he know that I was just about to give up? How did he know that at that very moment I was hopelessly lost? His presence and encouragement gave me the last little bit of gas I needed to make it to the end. When I was finally there he came to the waters edge, pulled me out and helped me sit down. He didn't stay next to me to comfort me or anything like that because he went back to that spot I saw him from and started cheering on my mother. Being another lifesaver. I don't know how he does it, but every single time I have needed my dad the most he has always been there. I don't even know if he knows all the times he has saved me. So even though my dad cant swim very well, He was the best lifeguard ever!