Thanks for the feedback. I have gotten some advice from swimmer in my area and met up with a group this am. It rained last night so the water was colder (ok colder being relative to my disposition... 70)

I did a breathing exercise when I got in the water. Basically at the dock I went under, exhaled, bobbed up inhale, went under exhale repeated for a minute or two and it really helped. Then I started out much slower than my training pace... and I was able to to swim the whole 2000yds without the semi-freakout.

I felt much better (more confident) after this swim and have one more open water swim in my schedule before the race.

Thanks again for the responses.