Just what I needed. I am getting the newbie anxiety of beginning to race and I really don't want to rush into it. I am running out of time to try things out and certainly don't want to drop-out, or crash but I don't mind crashing because it means I'm putting about the right amount of effort . You kept with it and wrote out a lot of the experience of your first race and passed it on to inquiring minds! Thank you!

My goal is similar; buy expensive bike and reason the expenditure by racing. Though, we all know the truth. We could race on an 80's steelie and perform just as well.