hey lunatic, i'm sorry that you & your son didn't have a good time, but i think their unpredictability is 1 of the things that make enduros so much fun. believe me, it is hard to lay them out to suit everyone--easy enough for the kids & beginners to have a good time, but hard enough for the a's & aa's to be challenged & drop some points, & any plan you make can be spoiled by the weather. it amazed me when i started doing them how much difference there was between my ability & that of the really fast guys.
i made the same mistake, i bet big that it'd be like last year, with lots of nice rests b/c of the heat. i therefore rode hard early, making big withdrawals from the energy bank, figuring i coulde make deposits later. but i crashed my brains out in that sunny section of short pines, & that took alot out of me. i had cramps in muscles that i didn't know existed. i never quite recovered completely after that, even tho the terrain was easier after that, so i didn't do all that well. the organizers got me! but i had fun (well, most of it was fun, exc. for the cramps on the drive home), & i'll be back next year.
& lunatic, i hope you & your son will stick with it, it's just like anything else, the more you do, the easier it gets. i'll second the advice above, too, laurel was 1 of the easier 1s the last time i did it, but remember, it's an enduro, so you never know!