Finishing Strong with the help of Negative Splits

I have been running a few races.  10k's and most recently an 8 miler on Mackinaw Island, Michigan.  One of my running trends is that I seem to start out very strong but loose energy and speed as the run progresses.
I'm interested in correcting this issue so that I can finish races running strong with good times and at least be able to guesstimate my finish time.  As of now... several runs have me walking 2 miles before the finish.

One possible remedy is to work on Negative Splits.

You can find out more about Negative Splits on this article by PopSugar.
In a nutshell, you are pacing your run and planning to be faster at the end than you were at the beginning.
I think that I can incorporate this into training...especially when using the treadmill but am unsure whether I can overcome the beginning race excitement which leads to a faster gait at most races.