10K Pace Chart

Whether this is your first 10K or your hundredth, it’s useful to have a 10K Pace chart to guide your training and race day pacing. This allows you to figure out goal paces in workouts and understand how your current pace might translate. We’ll also cover some questions about average paces for 10K.

In the chart below, you can either look for your goal finish time or find the associated per-mile pace. This way, you can plan your own specific pace target and race splits.

Or, if you’re new to running, you may simply look at your current mile time to see how long it will take to run a 10K.

Quick Jump

What is a Good 10K Time?

The age old question of what’s a good pace. As always the answer is it depends on a lot of factors! These factors include your age, fitness level, experience, training, health, race course, and even the weather.

The 10K is an interesting distance because at the elite level it’s most often run on a track! And while it’s an endurance event, it’s still considered part of the standard track and field line up, unlike the half marathon and marathon which are done as road races.

The 10K world record holders currently are:

26:11 (4:13 mile) by Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda at Valencia in October 2020
29:01 (4:48 mile) Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia at Hengelo in November 2021

Meanwhile the average runner is going to be closer to a 8:00 min to 12:00 min per mile pace, which equals from a 45 minute to 75 minute 10K finishing time.

According to data from 2019 RunRepeat, the average male road racer finishes in about 56 minutes (9:02/mile pace). For that to be the average there are a lot of folks finishing both slower and faster than that!

What is the Average Pace for a 10K For A Woman?

Meanwhile for women the average finish time is about 1 hour and 3 minutes (10:15/mile pace) or roughly 6:23 per kilometer pace.

You could break down a good time by age, gender, experience and so much more. It’s important not to worry about what “good” is for anyone else and instead to focus on running your best race!

Age 16 to 19 the average is 01:00:21
Age 20 to 24 the average is 00:59:50
Age 25 to 29 the average is 01:02:25
Age 30 to 34 the average is 01:02:31
Age 35 to 39 the average is 01:02:19
Age 40 to 44 the average is 01:02:37
Age 45 to 49 the average is 01:03:27
Age 50 to 54 the average is 01:04:04
Age 55 to 59 the average is 01:07:41

Men’s average pace times tend to be about 7-8 minutes faster in all age groups.

How to Pick a Goal Finish Time with a Pace Chart?

If you’re finding it hard to set a goal for your upcoming race, you might find using a 10k time chart helpful. This chart gives you an estimate of your finish time based on the mile pace you’ve been running during your training sessions.

The chart provides mile splits for different paces, allowing you to choose the pace closest to your goal. You can select from a range of pace options, with 30-second intervals between 5:00 to 16:00 minutes per mile.

Here’s how you can use the chart: first, determine your current mile pace during training. Then, locate the corresponding mile split on the chart that matches your pace. This will give you an estimate of your finish time.

On the day of your race, you can use this information to program your watch with your mile splits, so you’ll have guidance throughout the race.

Alternatively, you can aim for the estimated finish time provided by the chart. This way, you’ll have a clear goal to work towards and can pace yourself accordingly throughout the race.

You can check out this pace calculator for more detailed numbers, but this pace table will help you find your average pace for your goal time.

The running pace chart is going to list your average pace per mile or per KM, to provide a correlated finishing time.

The great thing about this is that for most runners, a steady even pace from start to finish is the best way to achieve a Personal Best or finish the race feeling strong. That’s right, going for a negative split isn’t actually ideal because we’re assuming we’ll have more energy in the second half, which isn’t usually the case.

The following paces are provided in average mile time. Find your goal finishing time, to see the goal pace.

Or start with your current easy run pace to see where you might finish.

Look at the chart and find the finishing time of the races according to your pace which is laid out in 30-second increments.

Remember, this doesn’t take into account any specific type of course (hilly, lots of turns, hot weather conditions). It’s simply providing a per-mile time to hit that finish line.

Pace	Mile 1	Mile 2	Mile 3	Mile 4	Mile 5	Mile 6	Finish
5:00	5:00	10:00	15:00	20:00	25:00	30:00	31:04
5:30	5:30	11:00	16:30	22:00	27:30	33:00	34:10
6:00	6:00	12:00	18:00	24:00	30:00	36:00	37:17
6:30	6:30	13:00	19:30	26:00	32:30	39:00	40:23
7:00	7:00	14:00	21:00	28:00	35:00	42:00	43:30
7:30	7:30	15:00	22:30	30:00	37:30	45:00	46:36
8:00	8:00	16:00	24:00	32:00	40:00	48:00	49:43
8:30	8:30	17:00	25:30	34:00	42:30	51:00	52:49
9:00	9:00	18:00	17:00	36:00	45:00	54:00	55:55
9:30	9:30	19:00	28:30	38:00	47:30	57:00	59:02
10:00	10:00	20:00	30:00	40:00	50:00	1:00:00	1:02:08
10:30	10:30	21:00	31:30	42:00	52:30	1:03:00	1:05:15
11:00	11:00	22:00	33:00	44:00	55:00	1:06:00	1:08:21
11:30	11:30	23:00	34:30	46:00	57:30	1:09:00	1:11:27
12:00	12:00	24:00	36:00	48:00	1:00:00	1:12:00	1:14:34
12:30	12:30	25:00	37:30	50:00	1:02:30	1:15:00	1:17:40
13:00	13:00	26:00	39:00	52:00	1:05:00	1:18:00	1:20:47
13:30	13:30	27:00	40:30	54:00	1:07:30	1:21:00	1:23:53
14:00	14:00	28:00	42:00	56:00	1:10:00	1:24:00	1:26:59
14:30	14:30	29:00	43:40	58:00	1:12:30	1:27:00	1:30:06
15:00	15:00	30:00	45:00	1:00:00	1:15:00	1:30:00	1:33:12
15:30	15:30	31:00	46:30	1:02:00	1:17:30	1:33:00	1:36:19
16:00	16:00	32:00	48:00	1:04:00	1:20:00	1:36:00	1:39:25

All right now that you’ve got this useful tool for figuring out your goal pace. It’s time to fine-tune your training to get those race results. That means appropriate training with interval sessions, strength training, core workouts, good fueling, and enough easy miles.

If you’re looking for pace charts of other common race distances, check out my marathon pace chart and half marathon pace chart.

For indoor running, I highly recommend this treadmill pace chart, which will also teach you how to use it specifically for the treadmill.

Can Anyone Run a Sub 30 10KM?

Yes! But not very many people, you are definitely in an elite category to hold those paces.

The current fastest 10KM times are 26:24 minutes by Rhonex Kipruto in 2020. And for the women it’s 29:43 minutes by Joyciline Jepkosgei in 2017.

So if you’re wondering if a 10KM in 35 minutes is good? YES!

What Should My 10KM Pace Be?

Learning how to pick out your race day pace is truly a skill that is developed over time. Even as a running coach, I’m often looking at a range for athletes who don’t have a lot of races behind them.

If you’ve raced previously then you can use that time as a base during training and start to work on doing speed workouts at your new goal pace. Newer runners can often make big jumps like a 1 min per mile faster, while more experienced runners may really be pushing to shave off 5 seconds per mile to hit a PR.

The goal during training is to slowly build up the time you can spend at your goal pace during your hard workouts. This is going to help you determine if it’s a realistic 10KM race pace.

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