Trust me you don’t need to reccie the course, in fact I would save your energy. And no you aren’t meant to have more than one rider on the course at the same time, not just messing up the timing but could be construed as cheating….
Have fun ! My only advice would be a clean set of clothes for each lap, put them on straight away when you come back from your last lap.
Order of play on lap return: clothes, food, bike prep for next lap (OK hand bike to nice mechanic guy but whatever), rest, eat more.
I love these events for the fun of being in the team, and because my bike actually gets cleaned properly and more than once !!
And always always always take a back-up light at night, you will only make that mistake once !