Yeah, another one of these posts from a newbie. :D
My first razor came in the mail a couple days ago and I got the time to try it out tonight. So, I went to it. After stropping it (very slowly to do my best not to destroy my edge), I prepped with a hot towel and then lathered up. I'm too impatient to wait until I get a good soap and brush, so I used goop in a can (bring on the reprimands). It went pretty well I think, quite a bit of pull on the first few strokes while I was still really working out the angle and hand positioning, but after a little effort I managed to do both sides of my face WTG.
I started to try my neck and under the chin, but it proved a bit much for my first go so I stopped there with the straight. My cheeks were far from BBS, but I've been reading the posts by other newbies on here for a while and expected as much. I finished up getting smooth with my Mach 3, then dried and stored my razor, threw on a little aftershave and now I'm here posting.
All in all I think I'm pretty pleased for my first try. No nicks, minimum irritation, and I don't think I wrecked my edge. About as much as I can ask for at this point, so I'll just call it a success and try it again tomorrow!