I have withheld contribution to this thread because my/our circumstances may be fairly unique, as I don't know of anyone else who was on a bike racing 7 weeks after giving birth, but here goes, as succinctly as possible:

I raced my first season in 2007, a FULL season, not missing a race despite injury and financial crunch. My husband did as well (with the exception of two races he could not run due to a dislocated shoulder) Two riders, two bikes, all the races near and far...boy THAT WAS PRICEY! Not to mention time consuming, but definitely FUN! I worked my way up to start first wave each time in both novis classes and fought it out with the same peeps most weekends. Not burning up the track, but improving. I ran the last two races of the season pregnant (go ahead, flame away) still (naively) thinking..."well I am due in April, so I will have to miss that first round in 2008, but after that, no problem." WRONG.

I DID return to the second round of 2008 7 weeks after giving birth, and promptly crashed, separated my shoulder, couldn't pick-up my daughter, and honestly lost all interest. Priorities change, people get older, wiser and reassess what is truly important. I sat out the rest of the season because, honestly, my daughter is more important than anything else. Alan did continue to race, though, and only missed 2 rounds, I think.

Fast forward to this year...
We have two bikes, one well-prepped, one getting up there in age needing a fair amount of "refreshing" ($$), so we decide to share. Our races we used to run are back to back and we have our daughter at the track who we can't just hand over on the hot pit lane. that means someone is not running races they used to run, so between Alan and I we are doing half the classes we used to (me even more so since I switched from a 600 to a 750...) We both skip the first weekend because of more important things (10 people coming into town for our daughter's birthday) and catch the 2nd round. Now instead of feeling like we are "wow, paying a lot for each running 3 classes" we feel like we are getting bent over for running fewer. I did NGTO, and started WELL back in the second wave, since I missed the first round. I get a fine start, work my way through people, just to have some newb blow past me into a turn, highside in front of me, which diverted me off track, only to have to pass all those people I already passed, who scared the crap out of me with their "lines" the first time I passed them. It rained the next day and I went home. I have not been back since. To distill this down, here are MY reasons...

1) Family comes first. If they are in town, I am with them, if it is crappy and not fun for my daughter to be at the track, we go home. Maybe the demographics of our club are becoming "family" aged now? Could just be me.

2) Money, of course, but this actually isn't the biggest deal, even in a year where we are buying a new house. What is a deal breaker for me as far as the finances go is how much it costs to do ONE race. That is EXACTLY what has kept me from doing just that one race, when I can't do more.

3) Lingering injury (see round 2, 2008)

4) (as Ben eluded to in the qulifying thread) Grid position for someone that is not a "workhorse" out there every race, for whatever reason. I am not rossi-esque in my speed, but I'd like to ride with people similar in speed and ability to my self and not have to check -up 15 times a lap because I have no clue what the person ahead of me thinks they are doing. (p.s. yes, I know, I know, don't worry about the other person, but I HAVE TO NOW)

I don't know WHICH, if any, of these issues is familiar to anyone else, or even if they are the reasons for my husband, but that is my $0.02. Lots of good points made by others, too that I can relate to. I will be there in 2 weeks, because it was implored of us, but after that...not sure.