Find a Run Club
A consideration for many beginning runners will be to find other friends who share an interest or passion for running, with whom you can share the running experience. One best method for this is to find a running club in your area.
Here is an excellent tool from Road Runners Club of America to search for an existing club in your community or to begin a run club in your area.
Here is a useful resource from USATF where you can search for run clubs by zip code.
Also, Running in the USA has a nice Run Club Search feature on its header toolbar.