Running Pace Calculator
Enter any two of the three — your pace, your distance, or your total time — and the calculator works out the missing one.
If you've got a goal time for a parkrun, a half marathon, or anything in between, plug in the distance and your target time and it'll tell you the exact pace required. If you want to know how long your weekend long run is actually going to take at easy effort, do it the other way round. That's the whole thing.
Pace Calculator
Fill in any two - the third updates itself.
Results update automatically as you type - this just refreshes them.
Estimated Finish Time
Paces and distances near yours - your row and pace are highlighted.
| Distance | |
|---|---|
Your current pace and distance.
How it works
Pace, distance, time — pick two, get the third
Running pace is just arithmetic, but doing it in your head mid-planning is annoying. The calculator handles the maths so you can focus on the actual question you're trying to answer.
There are three ways to use it:
You have a goal time and a distance — plug both in and get the exact pace you need to hold. This is the most common use. If you want to run a 30-minute parkrun, the calculator tells you that's 6:00/km. You now know exactly what to aim for on the day, and in training.
You have a pace and a distance — the calculator tells you the finish time. Useful for planning long runs. If your easy pace is 6:30/km and Saturday's long run is 18km, you're looking at just under two hours. Worth knowing before you head out.
You have a time and a distance you already ran — enter both and get your average pace. Helpful if you ran somewhere without GPS, or want to double-check what your watch is telling you.
The table below the calculator shows your pace and finish time across common race distances, which is handy if you're thinking about how your current fitness translates across different events.
Why it's useful
Stop guessing what to aim for
Most training mistakes aren't about effort — they're about pace. Running too fast on easy days, not fast enough on hard days, starting a race at a pace that feels fine for the first kilometre and falls apart by the fifth. Knowing your numbers in advance doesn't guarantee a perfect run, but it removes one of the main ways things go wrong.
For goal-setting: a finish time only means something when you know what it requires on the ground. A 55-minute 10k sounds like a round number until you realise it's 5:30/km — and whether that's realistic or aspirational depends entirely on where your current fitness sits. The calculator makes that concrete.
For pacing on race day: most recreational runners go out too fast. It's almost universal. Having a specific pace locked in — and knowing what it feels like from training — is the most practical thing you can do to run a more even race.
For planning training runs: not every run should feel hard. Easy runs at the right pace build fitness without digging a hole you spend the rest of the week climbing out of. If you know your easy pace is 7:00/km, you can actually run at 7:00/km instead of drifting faster because it "doesn't feel that hard yet."
Frequently asked
Pace calculator questions
What's the right pace for an easy run?
Slower than you think. The rough rule is: a pace at which you could comfortably hold a conversation. If you're working too hard to talk in full sentences, you're going too fast. For most newer runners that's around 60-90 seconds per kilometre slower than your 5k pace.
How accurate are these numbers?
They're maths, not predictions. The pace shown is exactly what you'd need to maintain to hit the target — what the calculator can't tell you is whether you can actually hold it. That depends on your fitness, the day, the weather, and how the rest of life is going. Use the number as a target to aim for, not a guarantee.
Should I be running my long runs at goal race pace?
Generally no. Long runs are about time on feet and building aerobic fitness — they should feel comfortable, not like racing. Save race pace for shorter, structured workouts. Trying to hit goal pace on every long run is how a lot of people end up tired, slower, or injured.
What's the difference between pace and speed?
Pace is time per distance — minutes per kilometre or mile. Speed is distance per time — kilometres per hour. Most runners use pace because it's more actionable on a run: "I need to hold 5:30s" is easier to track than "I need to run at 10.9km/h." The calculator works in pace, but if your treadmill uses km/h it's worth knowing how to convert — divide 60 by your km/h speed to get min/km.
How do I know what pace to run in training?
It depends on the session. Easy runs — which should make up the bulk of your week — should feel genuinely comfortable. Tempo runs sit at a comfortably hard effort, roughly the pace you could hold for an hour all-out. Intervals are shorter and faster. If you're not sure where to start, plug your recent 5k time into the race predictor and use those numbers as a guide for what different effort levels look like for you specifically.
My GPS pace jumps around a lot — what should I trust?
Average pace over the whole run is more reliable than the instant pace your watch shows. GPS can be off by 10–15 seconds per kilometre on any given moment, especially under trees or near buildings. Use the calculator with your total distance and total time to get a clean average, rather than trying to hold a fluctuating number in real time.