Pace Calculator
Enter how far you ran and how long it took to get your pace, your speed, and projected finish times for common race distances. Works in min/km or min/mile.
Enter a distance and time to see your pace.
- Choose your unit. Pace in minutes per kilometer or minutes per mile — whichever your watch or race uses.
- Enter the distance you covered. For example 5 for a 5 km run, or 3.1 for a 5K in miles.
- Enter your time. Hours, minutes, and seconds. Leave hours at 0 for shorter runs.
- Read your pace and projections. You get your pace, your speed, and estimated finish times for common race distances at that pace.
Pace is one of the simplest and most useful numbers in endurance training. It is just your time divided by your distance, expressed as minutes and seconds per kilometer or per mile. This calculator works internally in meters and seconds, so you can mix and match units and still get a clean result.
From your pace it also derives two extra figures: your speed (the same information expressed as km/h or mph), and a table of projected finish times for standard race distances if you were to hold that exact pace the whole way.
Knowing your pace lets you run at the right effort for each type of session. Easy runs should feel comfortable and conversational — often a minute or more per kilometer slower than race pace. Tempo runs sit at a "comfortably hard" pace you could hold for about an hour. Intervals are run faster than race pace with recovery between reps.
A common mistake is running easy days too fast and hard days too slow, so everything blurs into one moderate pace. Using target paces for each session keeps the easy days genuinely easy and the hard days genuinely hard, which is where most endurance progress comes from.
The finish-time projections assume a constant pace, but in reality pace tends to drift slower as distance grows. Your body can sustain a higher intensity for a 5K than for a marathon, so an elite runner's marathon pace is meaningfully slower than their 5K pace.
That is why a marathon time predicted from a short, fast run will read optimistically. Treat the longer projections as a ceiling on a perfect day, and base real race goals on training at or near the target distance.
Pace, speed, and finish time
pace = time / distance
speed = distance / time
finish time = pace x race distance- pace
- = time per unit distance (min/km or min/mile)
- speed
- = distance per hour (km/h or mph)
- time
- = total elapsed running time
- distance
- = distance covered, in the chosen unit
Finish-time projections assume you hold the same pace for the whole distance. In practice most runners slow down over longer races, so treat longer projections as an optimistic ceiling.
How do I calculate running pace?
Pace is your time divided by the distance you covered. For example, running 5 km in 27 minutes 30 seconds is 1650 seconds over 5 km, which is 330 seconds — 5 minutes 30 seconds — per kilometer. This calculator does the division for you and formats the result as minutes and seconds per unit.
What is the difference between pace and speed?
They describe the same thing from opposite directions. Pace is time per distance (minutes per kilometer or mile) and gets larger as you slow down. Speed is distance per time (km/h or mph) and gets larger as you speed up. Runners usually talk in pace; treadmills and cyclists usually talk in speed.
What is a good running pace?
It depends entirely on your fitness, the distance, and the terrain. A recreational runner might cover an easy kilometer in 6–7 minutes, while an elite marathoner holds close to 3 minutes per kilometer for the whole race. Rather than compare to others, track your own pace over time — steady improvement at a given effort is the meaningful signal.
How accurate are the projected finish times?
The projections assume you hold your entered pace for the entire distance, so they are accurate for short distances and optimistic for long ones. Most runners slow down as fatigue accumulates, so a marathon predicted from your 5K pace will usually be faster than what you actually run. Use the projections as a best-case reference, not a guarantee.
Should I run every kilometer at the same pace?
For steady-state runs, roughly even pacing is efficient and sustainable. Many runners even aim for a slight negative split — running the second half a touch faster than the first. Interval and tempo sessions deliberately vary pace, but for a race a controlled, even effort usually beats starting too fast and fading.
How do I convert between min/km and min/mile?
One mile is about 1.609 kilometers, so your per-mile pace is always a larger number than your per-kilometer pace. To convert, multiply your min/km pace by 1.609. For example, 5:00 per kilometer is about 8:03 per mile. Switch the unit toggle in this calculator to see either one instantly.
Can I use this for walking or cycling?
Yes. The math is the same for any activity where you cover a distance in a time — walking, cycling, swimming, or rowing. The finish-time projections are labelled with running race distances, but the pace and speed figures apply to any pace-based sport.
References
FitCalcs calculators provide general estimates for healthy adults and are not medical advice.
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