Honestly, the only thing that will help is slowing down.   Think negative splitting.   There is more than this to it but if you feel pressured early on then you will likely struggle at the end.   Set a goal pace and try and hit the mile times.

There might be pace groups in your race you could run with. Find out your pace time now with the people you run with and look for that group when you race. You may want to consider a garmin type runners pace/HR watch to help develope and mainain a pace for yourself. They work quite well, since you seem to be somewhat serious about your running. My shoes and my garmin are my most important running needs. Sounds like your just starting out to fast and burning out, try to look at the big picture and finish strong by startng out slower. Dont get caught up in the starting gate adrenalin rush!!! It happens to all of us lol...

BOSNPM wrote:

In a half the last 5K is the tuff part.

I agree - it really is two races, a ten miler and a 5K at the end.   The 5K sucks. 

I think in my HM PR, I went out in a 9:45-9:50 pace in the first 10 and came back to 10:15 or so in the final 5K.   I had a couple of fueling issues that I corrected the second time around.

That's another thing - start working on your fueling strategy now.

A half-marathon is a much more strategic race than a 5K, so it's hard to relate how you did in the 5Ks to what you should do in the half.  As I think was mentioned above, you need to develop a sense of pace from the long runs you're doing.  That would make a good starting pace for your half.  You must absolutely, positively avoid going out too fast in the half.  Starting too fast won't leave you struggling for the last half mile, it will leave you struggling for the last 6 or 7 miles.  So . . . 6 or 7 or 8 miles at your long run training pace, then pick up the pace a little (a little) if you're feeling good.  Evaluate again at 10 or 11 or 12.  Any time you think about going faster, factor the number of miles left into you decision.

Len