I took a few days off before the race.. doing nothing. I really had no idea what to expect come race day. One never really knows how one will do, even when things are going smoothly, in this case.. I had no idea. Also being my first race in a couple of decades, I did not know what was out there. I had been unsure which class to enter, even without the over training. In this state, I opted for the next class down from expert. I went to warm up before race start, riding up the road [because there were runners racing on our course before hand] I came to a little hill and my legs still felt empty.. 
I was not sure if a good warm up would help, or if it would deplete any thing I might have in the tank? I opted to turn back.. and just do what I could. I had a team mate that tried to talk me out of racing saying I did not need to etc. I had come to watch him race it the year before.. I looked like a fun tough course, and have been thinking about it all winter. I said I wanted to at least get out there and ride it. The course is a short 3 mile loop, in a small area. It was a great course.. with very interesting terrain. You just did the loop a few times. It was technical enough, the only place to drink was the tennis court where the start finish line was. Which also meant passing would be tough. They gave us a 100 or so yard sprint at the start, before ducking into the woods.. in my state I knew better than try anything there.
At the alloted time, the experts took off, our start was a minute after. There was not much of a count down... just a go. I took off comfortably.. and felt about mid pack. Just before we entered the woods, there was someone right in front of me, that did not look like they would be that good a technical rider.. so I passed them. I did end up passing a few people in that first lap, some of them would keep pace behind me for a bit, before dropping off. The last one stuck there a bit and at one point I asked him if he wanted by, and he said he was fine.
The course was quite convoluted, so that you could see some of your competitors on another section. That last guy I passed, I saw him often, but the course was so complex, I could not remember how much I had ridden since I had since the section where I would see him. Is he 100 ft behind me
or a 1/10th of a mile.. I never knew. I had to back off a little on my second lap, yet my biggest problem was the focus it took, and the upper body work. It was also unseasonably warm, so I was wanting to drink more than my once a lap. I braved it and tried to drink. I got the bottle out and drank.. and then tried to put it back and @#&%$
roots I grab the bar and try to hold the bottle and the handle bar at the same time.. and my hand starts to cramp.. and then on each bump, the bottle hits the shift lever, shifting it to a higher gear. @#^%# I manage to get the bottle back in it's cage.. downshift... and continue on. They did have someone handing out cups of water at the start finish area.. so heading out for my final lap.. I grabbed a cup of nice cold water.. drank some.. then poured the rest over my head trying to cool down. It felt great .. that is, until I realized it was washing sweat into my eyes.. and also covered my glasses so I could not see..
"that was bright you moron 
I got my eyes wiped out without crashing.. and continued for a good final lap. Now I was starting to catch some of the lesser classes that started behind me. They were all good at letting you pass.. so it went pretty smoothly. I had had no idea how I was doing. I knew I was not "up to snuff" as far as where I had been fitness wise, but considering where I was.. I was happy with the ride. It was fun. I get to the finish.. and some of my teamates, said I might have done pretty good. Well to find out... I ended up winning the class.. and not just in my age group, I won the whole class.
I have not seen all the results, to know how I compared any of the experts, except for the overall winner. I do know if I had not been over trained, I would have been pretty competitive there.
