Running Pace Chart

Pace per mile

Pace per kilometer

How to read the chart

Find your pace in the left-hand column and read across to see what that pace produces over each race distance. Paces are even — the same speed from start to finish — so the times are what you would run with perfectly level splits on a course measured exactly to the standard distance.

The distances are the standard road-race lengths: 5 km, 10 km, 21.0975 km for the half marathon and 42.195 km for the marathon, as set by World Athletics. Per-mile figures use the exact conversion of 1 mile = 1.609344 km, so a marathon is 26.2188 miles. Times are rounded to the nearest second.

Using the chart to set a goal

Work backward from a target. If you want to break two hours in the half marathon, scan the half-marathon column for the last time under 2:00:00 and read off the pace: about 9:00 per mile or 5:30 per kilometer. For a precise pace for any goal time, use the Pace Calculator, which solves for pace, time or distance.

Real races rarely run at perfectly even pace. Hills, wind, crowded starts and the extra distance from not running perfect tangents usually add time, so many runners aim a few seconds per mile faster than the chart pace for their goal. GPS watches also tend to read slightly long on race courses for the same reason.

Why longer races are slower per mile

A pace you can hold for a 5K is not one you can hold for a marathon. Endurance falls as distance grows, so most runners' marathon pace is well over a minute per mile slower than their 5K pace. Use your recent race results at a similar distance when choosing a goal row, and build up long runs gradually; the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend increasing activity in small steps to reduce injury risk.

Printing and downloading

Use the Print button for a clean, ink-friendly copy without the site menu, ads or footer — handy to tape inside a training log. The CSV download opens in any spreadsheet app so you can add your own splits or highlight target rows.