241 running paces — 3:00 to 7:00 per kilometre
Two hundred and forty-one paces, one second apart. Each one carries its 5K, 10K, half and full marathon finish times, its speed and its mile pace.
What this pace breaks
The cut-offs are tighter than they look: a sub-4 marathon needs 5:41 per kilometre, and one second slower puts you over four hours.
Every thirty seconds
Find the neighbourhood first, then step second by second on the page for your pace.
The half and the full are not round numbers
A marathon is 42.195 km and a half is 21.0975 km. Rounding to 42 km costs you about a minute at a 5:00 pace — small, but enough to miss a target.
Pace per km
How to read this
- Pace is the time for one kilometre, so a smaller number means faster.
- To get speed, divide 3600 by the pace in seconds: 300 s gives 12 km/h.
- A finish time is simply the pace multiplied by the distance.
- Mile pace is kilometre pace times 1.609344.
Frequently asked questions
Q. What pace do I need for a sub-4 marathon?
5:41 per kilometre. Times 42.195 km that comes to 3:59:45 — fifteen seconds in hand. At 5:42 you finish 31 seconds over four hours.
Q. Should I watch pace or speed?
Pace, when you are running: the watch calls out each kilometre and you can compare it to your target on the spot. Speed is what treadmills use.
Q. Will I really finish in these times?
Only if you hold the same pace throughout. Most runners fade late, so for a marathon it is safer to train at five to ten seconds quicker than the target pace.
Q. How long is one lap of the track?
It is 400 m, so 0.4 of your kilometre pace. At 5:00 per km that is two minutes a lap, four minutes for two laps.
Q. Why stop at 3:00 and 7:00?
Below 3:00 you are near world-record territory; above 7:00 running blurs into walking. In between is where people actually set targets.