Pace Calculator
Your details
Result
Answer
- Pace per mile
- 10:18 per mile
- Pace per kilometre
- 6:24 per km
- Speed
- 5.83 mph (9.38 kph)
- Total time
- 4:30:00
- Distance
- 26.219 miles (42.195 km)
- A mile is 1.609 km, so a per-kilometre pace is always the smaller number — 6:24 per km against 10:18 per mile here. Comparing the two directly is the usual source of confusion when race distances are metric and training paces are not.
Standard distances at this pace
What the same pace produces across every common race distance.
| Distance | Miles | Finish time |
|---|---|---|
| 5K | 3.11 | 32:00 |
| 10K | 6.21 | 1:03:59 |
| 10 miles | 10 | 1:42:59 |
| Half marathon | 13.11 | 2:15:00 |
| Marathon | 26.22 | 4:30:00 |
| 50K | 31.07 | 5:19:57 |
Even splits
Cumulative time at each mile, assuming you hold the pace exactly.
| Distance | Elapsed |
|---|---|
| Mile 1 | 10:18 |
| Mile 2 | 20:36 |
| Mile 3 | 30:54 |
| Mile 4 | 41:12 |
| Mile 5 | 51:29 |
| Mile 6 | 1:01:47 |
| Mile 7 | 1:12:05 |
| Mile 8 | 1:22:23 |
| Mile 9 | 1:32:41 |
| Mile 10 | 1:42:59 |
| Mile 11 | 1:53:17 |
| Mile 12 | 2:03:35 |
| Mile 13 | 2:13:52 |
| Mile 14 | 2:24:10 |
| Mile 15 | 2:34:28 |
| Mile 16 | 2:44:46 |
| Mile 17 | 2:55:04 |
| Mile 18 | 3:05:22 |
| Mile 19 | 3:15:40 |
| Mile 20 | 3:25:58 |
| Mile 21 | 3:36:15 |
| Mile 22 | 3:46:33 |
| Mile 23 | 3:56:51 |
| Mile 24 | 4:07:09 |
| Mile 25 | 4:17:27 |
| Mile 26 | 4:27:45 |
How do you calculate running pace?
Divide your total time in minutes by the distance covered. A marathon of 26.22 miles in 4 hours 30 minutes is 270 ÷ 26.22 = 10.3 minutes per mile, which works out as a pace of 10:18 per mile or 6:24 per kilometre.
pace = time ÷ distance time = pace × distance distance = time ÷ pace- pace
- Minutes per mile or per kilometre
- time
- Total elapsed minutes
- distance
- Miles or kilometres covered
Pace, time and distance are a single relationship, so any two give the third. The only real work is in the units, and there are two places it goes wrong. The first is the decimal-to-sexagesimal conversion: dividing 270 minutes by 26.22 miles gives 10.298 minutes per mile, and 0.298 of a minute is 18 seconds, not 30 — so the pace is 10:18, not 10:30. Multiplying the fractional part by 60 is the step people skip. The second is mixing miles and kilometres. A mile is 1.609344 km, so a per-kilometre pace is always numerically smaller than the same effort expressed per mile, which makes direct comparison misleading. This matters in practice because most race distances are metric while a lot of training is still paced in miles. Pace is also the inverse of speed rather than a different measure of it — 10:18 per mile is 5.82 mph — so a faster pace is a smaller number, which is the opposite of how speed reads.
- Convert your total time into minutes, including the seconds.
- Divide the total minutes by the distance covered.
- Take the whole number as the minutes of your pace.
- Multiply the decimal remainder by 60 for the seconds.
- Divide by 1.609 to convert a mile pace to a kilometre pace.
Worked example: A marathon — 26.22 miles — finished in 4 hours 30 minutes
A marathon — 26.22 miles — finished in 4 hours 30 minutes
Four hours thirty minutes is 270 minutes in total. Dividing by the marathon distance of 26.22 miles gives 10.298 minutes per mile. The conversion is where care is needed: the 0.298 is a fraction of a minute, so multiplying by 60 gives 18 seconds, making the pace 10:18 per mile — not 10:30, which is what reading the decimal as seconds would produce. In metric terms 26.22 miles is 42.195 km, so the same run is 270 ÷ 42.195 = 6.399 minutes per kilometre, or 6:24 per km. Note that the kilometre figure is smaller for identical effort, which is why the two cannot be compared directly. As a speed this is 5.83 mph or 9.38 kph. Holding exactly this pace would bring you through 5K in 32:00, 10K in 1:03:59 and the half marathon in 2:15:00 — precisely half the full time, since pace is constant.
What each pace input means
- What are you solving for?
- Pace, time and distance are one relationship. Give any two and this returns the third.
- Distance
- How far. The preset buttons are 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon in the selected unit.
- Distance unit
- Both pace figures are always shown, whichever unit you enter.
- Hours
- Hours of the total time, used when solving for pace or distance.
- Minutes
- Minutes of the total time.
- Seconds
- Seconds of the total time.
- Pace — minutes
- Minutes per unit of distance, used when solving for time or distance.
- Pace — seconds
- Seconds per unit, so 10 and 18 means a 10:18 pace.
What this pace does not account for
- A decimal pace is not minutes and seconds. 10.298 minutes per mile is 10:18, not 10:30 — multiply the fractional part by 60.
- A per-kilometre pace is always numerically smaller than the same effort per mile, since a mile is 1.609 km. The two cannot be compared directly.
- Pace is the inverse of speed, so a faster pace is a smaller number. 10:18 per mile and 5.82 mph describe the same run.
- A marathon is 26.2188 miles, or 42.195 km, not a round 26 or 42. The rounding changes a marathon prediction by about 20 seconds at this pace.
- This assumes an even pace throughout. Real races involve hills, wind, aid stations and fatigue, so a constant-pace projection from a short distance will overstate a long one.
- Race predictions from a shorter distance are extrapolation, not measurement. Doubling a half-marathon time typically understates a marathon by several minutes.
- GPS watches measure distance with error, particularly in cities or under tree cover, so a watch pace and a chip-timed race pace will rarely match exactly.
Frequently asked questions
What pace is a 4:30 marathon?
About 10:18 per mile, or 6:24 per kilometre. The arithmetic is 270 total minutes divided by 26.22 miles, giving 10.298 minutes per mile — which converts to 10 minutes 18 seconds.
How do you convert min/mile to min/km?
Divide the mile pace by 1.609344. A 10:18 mile pace is 10.3 minutes, and 10.3 ÷ 1.609344 = 6.4 minutes, which is 6:24 per kilometre.
Why is 10.298 minutes per mile not 10:30?
Because the 0.298 is a fraction of a minute, not a count of seconds. Multiplying 0.298 by 60 gives 18 seconds, so the pace is 10:18 — 12 seconds per mile faster than the misreading.
How far is a marathon exactly?
26.2188 miles, or 42.195 kilometres. Using a round 26 miles shortens a 4:30 projection by about 2 minutes, so the exact figure matters for pacing.
Is pace the same as speed?
They describe the same thing inverted. Pace is time per unit distance, speed is distance per unit time, so a faster run has a smaller pace and a larger speed.
Can I predict a marathon time from a half marathon?
Only roughly. Doubling a half time typically understates a marathon by several minutes, because fatigue is not linear. Any extrapolation across distances is an estimate, not a calculation.
Sources and review
Last reviewed .