The 5K is the most popular race distance in the world — whether you run parkrun every Saturday or are chasing a personal best on the track. Use this calculator to find the exact pace per km or per mile you need to hit your target finish time, or enter your recent 5K time to see your average pace and predicted times for other distances.
Preview
Ideal for parkrunners setting a weekly target, club runners planning a race strategy, beginners calculating an achievable first 5K finish time, and coaches building training paces for athletes.
The pace formula is straightforward: pace = total time ÷ distance. For a 5K, enter your finish time and the calculator divides by 5 to give your per-kilometre pace, then converts to per-mile automatically.
The race predictor uses the Riegel formula — an empirically validated equation used by coaches worldwide — to project your 10K, half marathon, and marathon equivalents from your 5K performance.
Training pace zones are calculated as percentages of your threshold pace: easy runs at 70–75%, long runs at 75–80%, tempo at 85–90%, and intervals at 95–100%.
Parkrun target: finish in 25:00
Inputs: Distance: 5 km, Time: 25:00
Pace: 5:00/km (8:03/mile). Projected 10K: ~52:22, Half marathon: ~1:56:00.
Convert a 5K time to per-mile pace
Inputs: Distance: 5 km, Time: 22:30
Pace: 4:30/km (7:14/mile). Equivalent mile pace: 7:14/mi.
Work backwards from a target pace
Inputs: Distance: 5 km, Pace: 6:00/km
Finish time: 30:00. Predicted 10K: ~1:02:40.
For recreational runners, finishing under 30 minutes is a common first goal. Club-standard runners typically aim for sub-25 minutes. Elite club runners target 18–20 minutes. For women, sub-30 is solid and sub-25 is strong. The most important benchmark is your own improvement over time.
You need to average 5:00/km (8:03/mile) for the full distance. Training towards this typically requires 3–4 runs per week including one interval session (e.g. 6×800m at 4:45/km pace) and one longer easy run. Most runners can reach sub-25 within 3–6 months of structured training.
Start 5–10 seconds per km slower than target pace for the first kilometre, run even splits through kilometres 2–4, and push in the final kilometre. Going out too fast in the first km is the most common 5K mistake at all ability levels.
Yes. A reliable rule of thumb is that your 10K time is approximately 2.09 times your 5K time. The race predictor in this calculator uses the Riegel formula for a more precise projection based on the physiological relationship between race distances.
Pace per kilometre and pace per mile measure the same effort — how long it takes to cover a unit of distance. 5:00/km equals 8:03/mile. This calculator displays both automatically so you can use whichever unit your watch or race is measured in.