[infamousclyde]

My partner regularly picks up pacing duties. It's pretty common for professional runners, and they receive some modest compensation depending on the size of the meet. Pretty trivial for a 1500 or 3k specialist to pace a 10k, for example. She's knocked out an 8:46 3k and is quite literally a human metronome, so it's a good go for her. Making sure your splits are even requires a lot of practice, however, and accelerating or slowing down is an unpleasant experience for the rest of the race participants.