Do my new shoes make me look like a new runner?

My new trainers are still only a week old and, despite the best efforts of several days of heavy rain and deep puddles, still pristine white. I am now starting to become a bit self conscious that lots of the other runners I pass think I'm just newly resolved to running. I keep wanting to stick a note on my front saying 'I have run a marathon, you know - I'm just breaking these babies in'

It's a much more competitive area here for running than my last home. Previously I was the local lone female runner, regarded by local residents as totally cuckoo for a) attempting any sort of physical exercise and b) leaving the house without an escort. Here it's runner central, with lots of very pro types running around morning, noon and night - literally. The apparent high calibre of fellow runners is definitely encouraging me to push myself a bit more - I don't want to be the local slowcoach.

There's also a nice split between male and female runners too, although the majority of the female runners run in small groups - safety in numbers.
I'm considering trying to find myself a running buddy on this basis - if there are lots of fellow runners around, surely one of them is going spare who runs at a similar pace? This might help drag me out more willingly in these dark evenings - I'm easily put off going out for a run when it's cold and dark, so a buddy would make me feel guilty about not going out. Unless they were equally put off, in which case it's the high road to run-avoidance.

There's a few local females who are clearly way too fast for me, but surely somewhere out there is a partner for me? I've tried looking on fetcheveryone.com, but this seems to be heavily weighted towards male runners who would all undoubtedly find me very slow (and might wear little tight shorts, in which case I would be unable to take them seriously). How else do fellow runners find running buddies, if your buddies don't run?