These Charts Will Help You Figure Out Exactly What Pace to Run to Hit Your Race Goal

Many runners have a packed race calendar this year. If you’ve been out of the racing game for a while, it’s time to start thinking about your race goals, whether you’re running a marathon, 10K, or other distance.

Finishing the race is a great goal, but if you have a time in mind, you should figure out the right running pace you’ll need to hit in order to guide your training. Luckily, you don’t have to lock in to one specific time for every run that you do.

To determine everyday running pace, runners typically add anywhere between 30 seconds per mile to as much as 2 minutes per mile to their goal race pace, says running coach Susan Paul. How much you choose to slow down is up to you, but remember that the longer the run, the slower the pace should be.

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Keep in mind that it’s often hard to hit the perfect pace for every run. Your training paces will also vary based on things like the weather conditions, hilliness, or the terrain you are running on. Plus, other factors like poor sleep or stress at home can factor in, as well.

If you want to take the guesswork out of everything, you can plug in your race goal time to our Training Pace Calculator tool to see how hard you should make every style of run.

So use the following marathon pace charts as a reference point for where you want to be with your average running pace.

How do these running pace charts help?

Our pace charts show what time a given average pace will produce for six common race distances: 5K, 5 miles, 10K, 10 miles, half marathon, and marathon. Charts are available for pace per mile, from 5:00 per mile to 15:59 per mile, and pace per kilometer, from 3:00 per kilometer to 12:59 per kilometer.

Why should I use these running pace charts?

There are two main reasons to consult these charts.

So you can easily determine your pace per mile and/or pace per kilometer from a race or recent training run.
To see what pace you’ll need to average to hit a specific goal time. For example, if you’re targeting a sub-1:50 half marathon, you can easily see that you’ll need to average a 8:23 per mile or faster. Knowing that pace, you can then structure your training accordingly.

How do I use these running pace charts?

Choose which measure of pace—per mile or per kilometer—you prefer. Then select the page devoted to the pace range that most closely matches your typical times.