Good luck both of you! I may try an enter an enduro or two this year (not anything with laps as I hate riding in circles) but it will be to do a long ride with some water and feed station support rather than a race. "Mountain biking" and "racing" just does not compute for me, unlike running, I just like getting out in the hills (though I ride mainly with men and can flog myself to death on normal rides so that's probably enough!). I also don't consider any of my riding to be training, its just riding, whereas all my running is training - don't know why it just is.

There is also absolutely none, zip, nada short course XC racing round here and most events are at least a 2 hour drive away (this is UK not US concept of distance, I appreciate that can be considered local in some areas of the US ).