Swim Start III

At some point, somewhere between 10 seconds and a minute, I began to panic. I stopped. My wave swam away from me and I was last. I turned around and thought about quitting, swimming back to the shore. Todd, being a very experienced triathlon spectator, came out on shore where I could see him. I shook my head at him, twice, saying "I don't think I can do this." He made the perfect gesture, something in between "You can do it!! I know you can! Swim!" and "It's ok, I'm here, if you have to swim back, it will be ok." It was the perfect thing at the perfect moment. I turned around, and just started swimming. I caught my breath for a few seconds on one of the swim angels' surf boards. I've never even touched a surfboard before and at that moment it was the best thing on Earth. I swam again and before I knew it, I was around the first buoy.