My First Expert Race

So, I've only ever done two mountain bike races, and a handful of xterras, been riding mtb for two years now. The girls I train with upgraded to expert this year, and the Indiana series is not heavy on the women's side, so I decided to upgrade to expert also. My upgrade was approved a few weeks ago. We decided to venture down to one of the Kentucky Points Series races, at Younger's Creek. We prerode the 14 mile loop Saturday afternoon. And I was a bit worried for the 2 laps due the experts on Sunday. There are switchbacks, steep, and very loose, the likes of which I have never ridden before. A long set for 500 feet elevation up at the start, lots of fun stuff on top, more switchbacks in the middle, down and back up, more fun stuff, including the drop, what looked to me like straight down for 30 feet, off a completely horizontal lip. More hard stuff, and more awful switchbacks down. I seriously thought about dropping after one lap, but I thought if I could just pedal one more stroke, each pedal moved me past the half way point and toward the finish. The second lap was hard. I felt slow, and tired, and sloppy. But I managed a big smile going down the drop, as it was incredible fun, like an amusement park. I finished third. Out of only four women racing expert. Fourth dnf'd. One of my friends opted to not even start. ok, so I felt a little out of my league, but I'm happy that I did the race, and finished, and had a few smiles along the way. I think there were only 9 women total at all levels of the race, its a challenging course. Every ride is a new learning experience for me, since I've only been doing this for a short time. And this one was probably the hardest course I've ever ridden. And had things I don't get to ever practice, so maybe I'll get myself back down there some weekend just for some switchback practice.