One of the biggest challenges for long-distance racers of any speed, but especially novices, is pacing. As Joe Henderson wrote in his excellent book “Run Farther, Run Faster,” “The great distance of the marathon multiplies the effects of good and bad pacing.”

In recent years, more marathons and half marathons have been trying to help runners by supplying pacers, whose role is to escort groups of goal-oriented racers to their desired finish times.

Pacers are essentially volunteers who carry a stick with a bright little flag and a number – say, 3:50 – throughout the race. Among the businesses providing pacers is Beast Pacing in Hesperia, California. Vanessa Kline launched Beast, to whom races pay a fee, two years ago and now has a growing roster of 600 people who have paced in 33 states.

That includes the Maine Coast Marathon, held two weekends ago, and the Mount Desert Island Marathon on Oct. 18. The Maine Marathon is also considering pacers.

Kline has run about 50 marathons since 2012 and has been a pacer in about 30 of them. Also an ultra-runner, she has a marathon PR of 3:29 and a half marathon best – while pushing two of her three kids in a stroller – of 1:53.

“When you know someone who has worked their rear off for 16-20 weeks to get a time, it’s almost more satisfying to help them hit a goal than to do it myself,” she said.

Kline screens her stable carefully and estimates their success rate at 98 percent – success meaning that they and their group finish about a minute ahead of the target time. Pacers must routinely finish their marathons at least 20 minutes ahead of the goal time.

Such groups tend to be slower overall, but Ludo Bruyere is among those who lead faster runners. A former Mainer who now lives in Montreal but often races here, Bruyere, 46, has a marathon PR of 2:46 and on Sunday will be a pacer (at 3:15) at the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington for the fourth time. His wife, Nicole, will pace the 5-hour group. She even got Ludo into pacing: He partnered her to a 5:30 in Paris and a 4:30 at MDI. Both Bruyeres have paced successfully every time out.

Inevitably, there is attrition. Ludo noted that he might get 40 people signed up the night before at VCM, but just 20 or 30 will be there in the morning, for various reasons. “But there is usually a solid group to the halfway mark. At Vermont, that’s where the group splits, either feeling the distance, or knowing the ‘Everest’ of the course is coming in a couple of miles.

“After that hill (Mile 15) I can count the group, and if I still have half a dozen, it’s a miracle, and at Mile 20 it can be down to two or three.

“Coming in on the bike path the last 10K, people can be kind of dying but will join in and try to jump-start their race, and I say, ‘Come on, guys, join us!’ At the end, the group is usually two or three ahead of me, two or three behind me, and one with me.

“It really does feel good, though, when their success is kind of transposed on you, especially when someone has been working on a goal for years, like qualifying for Boston.”

Putting your eggs in a pacer’s basket isn’t for everyone, especially more experienced and accomplished runners. Jen Rohde of Cumberland, a former lawyer who is now a personal trainer and running coach operating Run and Done, ran a 3:16 PR at Chicago. Heading into Boston 2015 (where she ran 3:20), she raced the Eastern States 20-miler with a pacer, for a while. Rohde is a dedicated negative-splitter who likes to go out conservatively, and the pacer was a time-banker, putting up early miles almost 10 seconds faster than goal pace. At Mile 10 Rohde decided, “I’m outta here.” She finished almost 3 minutes ahead of the group goal.

“It is wonderful to have the support of a bunch of people, and it’s a great distraction from doing all the mental work yourself, and the pacer did a little cheerleading and encouraged people to cheer us on,” she said. “But I’ve developed my own theory about how I do best.”

Yes, pacers can fail to deliver. In Florida’s Space Coast Marathon, Melissa Ossanna of Bar Harbor (who set a PR of 3:48) remembers seeing the 3:45 guy charge out at what looked like almost a minute faster than goal pace. When she saw him again, approaching the finish on the out-and-back, he was alone except for the sign.

Far more often pacers come through, as Ossanna did while leading the 4:30 brigade at Maine Coast. It was her first time pacing.

“What a great thing to do. The challenge of having to run absolutely between 10:05 and 10:20, and at least 10 people finished around that time ahead of me. For two of them it was a first marathon.

“It was a little stressful at the beginning – ‘People are counting on me, what if I screw up?’ – but I loved running for other people, and it felt great to get it done.”

John Rolfe of Portland is a staff writer and a road runner. He can be contacted at 791-6429 or:

jrolfe@pressherald.com

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