Swimming in Lake Washington

Remember that triumphant blip the first time I swam in open water - in a lake, in fact? Well, this is not that blip. The is the cute "before" picture when the "after" picture (if there had been one) would have been the horrible aftermath of me totally freaking out on my first attempt to swim in Lake Washington. Today is the day I realized that 8 weeks of swimming does not in fact cancel out 31 years of fear of the water. I had a complete meltdown in the lake, crying included, and was virtually unable to swim in it at all. We practiced for a while but eventually gave up and moved on to the biking and running portion of our training. I am not sure what this means for my triathlon training. If I am being optimistic, I will say it means that I need more open water experience and that this can be trained up to performance just like the body can. If I am being pessimistic, it makes me feel like quitting all together.