Have you tried NaNoWriMo?

I wondered whether any of you have tried NaNoWriMo and, if so how you got on? Did you manage to write 50,000 words? Was it worth the effort?

I ask because I've been playing with a novel idea for a while. (The working title is Brothers at War and it centres on two brothers and a young Jewish woman in Vichy France.) I've got an outline plot and a few characterisations and I've done a bit of reading. But I keep telling myself the project is too difficult and I should abandon it and do something easier. It occurs to me to sign myself up for NaNoWri Mo and just dash something off in November.