I watched my first race yesterday...I'm pretty smitten! I'm going to ride the course soon and see how it goes. I've never raced at all, but it looks so fun, and yes, very hard. There's another race on the same course mid-November, so I might be on my way to whipping myself into shape to give it a go.
Great for you -- I like the idea of falling just one time less each race! Do you have more races planned out?