Running pace calculator
Enter a distance and a time and get your pace per kilometre and per mile, your speed both ways, and what that exact pace would produce over every common race distance.
Your run
Your pace
| 1 km | 5:00 |
| 1 mile | 8:03 |
| 5 K | 25:00 |
| 10 K | 50:00 |
| Half marathon | 1:45:29 |
| Marathon | 3:30:59 |
This is arithmetic, not a prediction — nobody holds 5 K pace for a marathon.
Racing this distance? Break it into splits →
How the math works
Pace is time ÷ distance and speed is distance ÷ time. That is the whole of it — no model, no assumptions, no fitted constants. Given a distance and a time these numbers are exactly right, which makes this one of the few calculators on this site with nothing to caveat about its own arithmetic.
The mile is defined as 1,609.344 metres, so every conversion here uses that rather than a rounded 1.6. Over a marathon the difference between the two is most of a minute.
Common pace equivalents
| Per km | Per mile | 5 K | Marathon |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3:30 | 5:38 | 17:30 | 2:27:41 |
| 4:00 | 6:26 | 20:00 | 2:48:47 |
| 4:30 | 7:15 | 22:30 | 3:09:53 |
| 5:00 | 8:03 | 25:00 | 3:30:59 |
| 6:00 | 9:39 | 30:00 | 4:13:10 |
Honest caveats
The arithmetic is exact; the interpretation is where people go wrong. The table showing what your pace produces at other distances is a multiplication, not a forecast — nobody holds 5 K pace for a marathon, and treating that row as a goal is how runners blow up at thirty kilometres.
If you want an actual prediction across distances, the race predictor uses Riegel's formula and accounts for fatigue. To turn a goal time into a race plan, use the splits calculator.
Common questions
What is the difference between pace and speed?+−
They are the same information inverted. Pace is time per unit of distance — four minutes per kilometre — and speed is distance per unit of time — fifteen kilometres per hour. Runners think in pace because it maps onto what a watch shows mid-run; cyclists and treadmills think in speed. This shows you both from the same input.
Why does my GPS watch disagree with this?+−
Because your watch measured a slightly different distance than the one you typed in. GPS drifts around buildings and under trees, and it cuts corners on bends, so a measured 5 K course and a watch reading 5 K are rarely the same 5 K. On a track, trust the track. On a certified road course, trust the course.
How do I convert between minutes per kilometre and minutes per mile?+−
A mile is 1.609 kilometres, so a per-mile pace is your per-kilometre pace multiplied by 1.609. Five minutes per kilometre is a little over eight minutes per mile. This calculator does both at once so you do not have to hold the conversion in your head mid-session.
Should I run even pace the whole way?+−
For most distances from 1500 m up, roughly even splits — or a slightly faster second half — is how the fastest times get run. It is not universal: sprints have an acceleration phase that makes even pacing impossible, and hilly courses need effort held even rather than pace. The table on this page is arithmetic, not a pacing plan.
Pace is the outcome. Power is the cause.
The 12-week Sprinter program builds the posterior chain that puts force into the ground — the thing that actually moves a pace.