5k pace chart — turn a finish time into pace per mile
Enter a finish time and a distance to get the average pace per mile and per kilometre, then see where that result falls on a reference table of common 5k and 10k times.
Free calculator · No signup · Runs in your browser
The chart itself
5k pace chart: finish time to pace per mile and per kilometre
There are two ways to read a pace result, and it is worth keeping them apart. The first is the descriptive one: your average pace is a fact about a race you have already run, and it is exactly total time divided by total distance. The second is the prescriptive one: a target pace is a goal for a race you have not run yet, and it depends on your fitness, the course, and the weather on the day. This page produces the first kind of number. The reference table below gives you a sense of scale, but it does not tell you what you should be running.
| 5k finish time | Pace per mile | Pace per km |
|---|---|---|
| 15:00 | 4:50 | 3:00 |
| 17:00 | 5:28 | 3:24 |
| 18:00 | 5:48 | 3:36 |
| 19:00 | 6:07 | 3:48 |
| 20:00 | 6:26 | 4:00 |
| 21:00 | 6:46 | 4:12 |
| 22:00 | 7:05 | 4:24 |
| 23:00 | 7:24 | 4:36 |
| 24:00 | 7:43 | 4:48 |
| 25:00 | 8:03 | 5:00 |
| 26:00 | 8:22 | 5:12 |
| 27:00 | 8:41 | 5:24 |
| 28:00 | 9:01 | 5:36 |
| 29:00 | 9:20 | 5:48 |
| 30:00 | 9:39 | 6:00 |
| 32:00 | 10:18 | 6:24 |
| 35:00 | 11:16 | 7:00 |
| 40:00 | 12:52 | 8:00 |
| 45:00 | 14:29 | 9:00 |
| 60:00 | 19:19 | 12:00 |
Every pace in that table is recomputed from the finish time each time the site is built, so the chart and the calculator cannot disagree. Rows span 15 minutes to one hour; the calculator above highlights the one nearest your own result.
How the number is produced
Finish time, distance, and one division
A pace chart does one job: it turns a finish time into a speed you can picture. Race results are reported as a time, but the time only makes sense once you know how long the race was. A 25-minute 5k and a 25-minute 10k are entirely different performances, and pace is the number that shows the difference. This page does the division for you, in both miles and kilometres, and then places your result next to a table of common finish times so you can see where it sits.
The arithmetic is a single division. Convert your finish time to seconds, divide by the distance in the unit you want, and turn the result back into minutes and seconds. For miles, a 5k is 3.106855 miles and a 10k is 6.21371 miles. For kilometres, a 5k is exactly 5 kilometres and a 10k is exactly 10. Worked example: a 25:00 5k is 1,500 seconds; 1,500 divided by 3.106855 is 482.8 seconds per mile, which is 8:03; 1,500 divided by 5 is 300 seconds per kilometre, which is 5:00. A 30:00 5k is 9:39 per mile and 6:00 per kilometre.
The single most common mistake with pace numbers is to treat an average as a constant. An average pace of 8:03 per mile does not mean you ran 8:03 for every mile — it means that if you had run every mile at exactly 8:03, you would have finished at the same time. Runners almost always cover the first mile faster than the last, so an average pace sits somewhere between the pace you started at and the pace you finished at. The gap tends to widen on hilly courses and in warm conditions.
Two units, two numbers
Miles and kilometres from the same race
Paces are displayed as minutes and seconds, and the seconds are rounded to the nearest whole second. That matters at the boundary: 482.8 seconds is 8:03, while truncating the fraction would have printed 8:02. Rounding is also why the mile column and the kilometre column cannot both be derived from each other exactly — each is computed from your original finish time, then rounded on its own. The kilometre pace in seconds per kilometre is also reported without any rounding at all, because it is the raw number.
| 5k finish time | Per mile | Per kilometre |
|---|---|---|
| 25:00 | 8:03 | 5:00 |
| 30:00 | 9:39 | 6:00 |
| 55:00 (10k) | 8:51 | 5:30 |
Each column is computed from the original finish time and rounded on its own, so the two figures can appear to disagree by a second when converted back and forth by hand.
Before you set a target
What a pace number does and does not say
The second thing to watch is the unit. Metric races and imperial races produce paces in different units, and mixing them across a training week makes it hard to see whether you are actually improving. Pick one unit for your own records and convert the odd race into it rather than keeping two parallel sets of numbers. If you do convert by hand, remember that one mile is 1.609344 kilometres, so a kilometre pace multiplied by that factor gives the equivalent mile pace before rounding.
The reference table on the home page lists common 5k finish times from 15 minutes to an hour, with the per-mile and per-kilometre pace each one implies. Every cell in that table is recomputed from the same formula each time the site is built, so the table and the calculator cannot drift apart. Read it as a scale rather than a scoreboard: the row that matches your last race tells you your average pace, and the rows above it tell you what a faster time would require you to average.
Straight answers
Pace questions, answered
What is a good 5k pace?
There is no single good pace, because the number only means something next to a goal. As a rough orientation from running club results, a 5k finished in 25 minutes is 8:03 per mile and 5:00 per kilometre. Finish in 30 minutes and you are running 9:39 per mile, or 6:00 per kilometre. Most first-time 5k runners land somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes; regular club runners usually sit between 20 and 27 minutes; and anyone under 20 minutes is running at a pace most recreational runners never reach. Use the reference chart on this page to find the row nearest your own finish time and read the pace straight off it.
How do I convert my finish time to pace?
Divide your total time in seconds by the distance, then turn that back into minutes and seconds. For a 5k, which is 3.106855 miles, a 25:00 finish is 1,500 seconds, and 1,500 divided by 3.106855 is 482.8 seconds per mile — 8:03. For 10k, which is 6.21371 miles, a 55:00 finish is 3,300 seconds, and 3,300 divided by 6.21371 is 531.1 seconds per mile — 8:51. The calculator above does exactly this, for both miles and kilometres at once, and you can enter a custom distance in either unit if your race was not a 5k or a 10k.
Is a 5k pace the same as my 10k pace?
No, and the difference is the point of having two columns. You can hold a faster pace over 5k than over 10k, because the shorter race asks less of your endurance. A runner who finishes a 5k in 25:00 at 8:03 per mile would typically finish a 10k considerably slower than 8:03 per mile — often 30 to 60 seconds per mile slower — which is why the second column on the reference chart is there. If your 10k pace per mile is faster than your 5k pace per mile, one of the two times is probably a time trial on a short course.
Should I train by pace or by effort?
This page only converts times into paces; it does not prescribe training. What is worth knowing is that pace is a description of something that already happened, and effort is what you actually experience while running. Heat, hills and wind all change the pace you can hold at a given effort, so a pace that felt comfortable in cool weather can feel hard in the summer. Many runners use pace as a target for short, specific sessions and effort for everything else. That is a coaching question, and it is outside what a chart can answer.
Does the calculator assume I ran evenly?
Yes. Every pace on this page comes from a single division: total time divided by total distance. That is a description of average pace, and it assumes even pacing — the same speed from the first metre to the last. Real races almost never work that way. Most runners start slightly fast, settle, and slow in the final kilometre. So treat the number as the pace you averaged, not the pace you held at any particular moment. If you want the pace of a single split, divide that split's time by that split's distance instead.
Why does the mile pace and the kilometre pace not match exactly?
Because a mile and a kilometre are different lengths — one mile is 1.609344 kilometres — so a single average speed produces two different numbers, and each is correct in its own unit. Rounding adds a second, smaller discrepancy: paces are shown as minutes and seconds, and each of the two is rounded independently to the nearest second. Rounding both to whole seconds means they can appear to disagree by a second when converted back and forth by hand. That is a display artefact, not an arithmetic error, and it is why the calculator shows both figures side by side rather than deriving one from the other.
