I am an active masters racer and cycling coach. In the race you are entering, there will likely be a number of first-time racers like yourself. A couple key items of advice are to not ride at the front any more than you need to (until the finish). If you are at the front pulling, don't pull more than a minute...the smarter racers will let you pull all day until the last 200m to the finish. They will know you are doing more work, becoming more fatigued, and they are able to benefit by sitting in the pack and saving energy. A second item of advice is not to "tail gun," which means dangling off the back of the group. A couple things can happen here...one is you can get "gapped off" if there is an attack or acceleration and the riders in front of you don't react. Another thing that can happen is that if there is crash, you may get tangled up as it would be happening in front of you. The best advice is to try to stay in the front half of the peloton. Finally, don't define success in this first race as winning; a success would be finishing with the pack, and a great bonus would be if you made it on the podium. Between now and the race, try to group ride as much as possible, preferably with racers who are willing to teach you and work with you on racing skills and tactics. You need to learn to become very comfortable riding very, very close to other riders (it is likely your race will have a center-line rule...meaning you will not be allowed to cross the center line of the road). So, this is just a little bit of advice for a first-time racer, not advice for an experienced racer. Good luck and have fun!