Marathon Pace Chart

What is a marathon pace chart?

A marathon pace chart is a lookup table that turns a goal finish time into the even pace needed to run it. Each row divides one finish time by the exact marathon distance of 42.195 km and shows the result per kilometre, per mile and as speed.

How do you read a marathon pace chart?

Find your goal finish time in the left column and read across. The chart covers 2:00 to 7:00 in one-minute steps, 301 rows split into 10 blocks of 30 minutes, and the jump links above it take you straight to a block. The pace per kilometre is what you want on your watch if you train in metric, the pace per mile if you train in imperial, and the kph or mph figure is what to set on a treadmill for a goal-pace session. The 3:00, 3:30, 4:00, 4:30 and 5:00 rows are marked as the round milestone targets.

The four split columns show where you should be at even pace. For a 4:00 marathon that is 28:26 at 5K, 56:53 at 10K, 2:00:00 at halfway and 2:50:38 at 30K. The 30K column matters more than it looks: it is where the last 12.195 km begin, and arriving there on schedule rather than a few minutes early is usually what decides whether the final stretch is a race or a survival march.

Find your exact time, then plan the race

Goal times are rarely round numbers. Because the chart has a row for every minute, a 3:12 target (4:33 min/km) or a 3:18 target (4:42 min/km) needs no arithmetic at all. For a time between rows, type it into the finder above in whatever form you think of it, such as 3:47:30, 3h47 or 3h 47m 30s. It shows the exact pace, the speed and the elapsed time at each split, then marks the nearest row and scrolls the chart to it.

The finder keeps your time in the page address, so a link like this one for 3:47:30 opens on the same answer for a training partner or coach. Plan splits and a pace band carries the time to the splits calculator, which builds a kilometre or mile table and a printable wrist band. Under the chart, Copy table puts all 301 rows on the clipboard for a spreadsheet, Download CSV saves them as a file and Print gives a clean paper copy without the site navigation.

One practical warning about treating a chart row as a race plan: aiming at exactly goal pace leaves no margin. A crowded start, weather, and the extra distance you cover weaving between other runners all work against you, and GPS watches commonly record a certified marathon course as slightly longer than 42.195 km because of that weaving. Rounding bites too: the exact pace for 3:30 is 4:58.6 per km, so a watch set to 4:59 brings you home in 3:30:16, while 4:58 gives 3:29:34. Planning a second or two per kilometre faster than the chart row builds a small buffer without starting recklessly.

What are the equivalent half marathon, 10K and 5K times?

A marathon goal implies a level of fitness, and that fitness has an equivalent at shorter distances. The table below takes every 15 minutes from 2:00 to 7:00and projects each marathon goal onto the half marathon, 10K and 5K with Riegel's endurance formula, t2 = t1 x (d2 / d1) ^ 1.06, the same model behind the race time predictor.

Read these as a model, not a measurement. Riegel's formula assumes you are equally well trained for both distances and racing in similar conditions, which is rarely true: a runner who has done nothing but long slow miles will beat the marathon prediction from their 5K, while a track specialist will miss it. Projecting downwards, as this table does, is usually the kinder direction, because marathon fitness generally implies you could run the shorter time. Projecting upwards from a 5K to a marathon is where the model most often flatters people. Use it to sanity-check a goal, not to set one on its own.

Why is marathon pacing so unforgiving?

Over 42.195 km small errors compound, and the usual explanation is carbohydrate availability: muscle and liver glycogen stores are limited, running faster draws on them proportionally harder, and going out too quickly can leave you short of fuel in the closing miles. That is the standard account of what runners call hitting the wall. How much it affects any individual depends on training, in-race fuelling and how well adapted they are to using fat as a fuel, so treat it as the accepted explanation rather than a precise prediction of your race.

What pacing data does show consistently is that the best marathons are run close to an even effort. Ten seconds per kilometre too fast in the first 10 km is barely noticeable at the time and costs far more than ten seconds per kilometre would at the end. That is why rehearsing goal pace in long training runs matters, and why it is worth building a marker by marker plan with the splits calculator before race day.

How do I set a realistic marathon goal?

Start from a recent race rather than from ambition. A half marathon three to six weeks out is the most informative single data point, and the race time predictor will turn it into a marathon estimate. Cross-check against the half marathon pace chart and the 10K pace chart to see whether the pace you plan to hold for 42 km is sensibly slower than the pace you can hold for 21.

Then test it. If goal pace feels comfortable and conversational through the middle of a long run, it is probably right. If it already feels like work at 10 km, it is too fast and the chart has a slower row waiting for you. Use the pace calculator to convert your goal pace between units, or the treadmill pace converter to run goal-pace sessions indoors.

Printable marathon pace chart

For the fridge, the club noticeboard or a training folder, the image below lays out the marathon chart from 2:00 to 7:00 on one A4 page. It is free to reuse with a credit, under the same licence as the PaceLab dataset.

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Last reviewed 2026-10-26. Formulas, constants and sources: methodology. Changes to any calculation are logged in the changelog.
Checked against: marathon 42.195 km (World Athletics), 1 mile = 1.609344 km.