Pace Converter (min/km to min/mile)

About the Pace Converter (min/km to min/mile)

Pace is the time it takes to cover a set distance — minutes per kilometre or per mile — and speed is the distance covered in an hour; each is the reciprocal of the other. Type a pace or a speed in any box — per km, per mile, km/h, mph, metres per second or the time for a 400 m lap — and every other box follows: 5:00 per km is 8:03 per mile, 12 km/h, 7.46 mph, 3.33 m/s and a 2:00 lap.

Below the converter are the finish times at that pace for 400 m, 1 km, 1 mile, 5K, 10K, the half marathon and the marathon; a solver that works out the time, the distance or the pace from the other two; and a pace chart — every 15 seconds of pace per km or per mile, or every 0.5 km/h or mph of treadmill speed — that you can download. Everything is worked out in your browser.

Common uses

• Turning a training plan written in min/km into min/mile, or the other way round.
• Setting a treadmill in km/h or mph for a target pace.
• Planning 400 m track repeats from a race pace.
• Seeing what a pace means over 5K, 10K, a half marathon or a marathon.
• Printing a pace chart for a race or a training block.

The formulas

One mile is exactly 1,609.344 m (NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C), so:

• pace per mile = pace per km × 1.609344 — 5:00 per km = 300 s × 1.609344 = 482.8 s = 8:03 per mile
• pace per km = 60 ÷ speed in km/h minutes — 12 km/h = 5:00 per km; pace per mile = 60 ÷ mph — 6 mph = 10:00 per mile
• mph = km/h ÷ 1.609344 and m/s = km/h ÷ 3.6
• 400 m lap = pace per km × 0.4 — 5:00 per km = 2:00 a lap
• finish time = pace × distance, distance = time ÷ pace, pace = time ÷ distance

Paces are shown to the nearest second and laps to a tenth. Finish times come from the unrounded pace, so 5:00 per km over 42.195 km is 3:30:58.5, shown as 3:30:59.

Race distances and the track

The standard road distances in the World Athletics Technical Rules (Rule 55) are the road mile (1,609.344 m), 5 km, 10 km, 15 km, 10 miles, 20 km, the half marathon, 25 km, 30 km, the marathon (42.195 km), 50 km and 100 km; the half marathon is half the marathon, 21.0975 km. A standard track is 400 m in lane 1 (Rule 14), so the lap times here are for lane 1.

Road courses are measured along the shortest route a runner could take, must not be shorter than the official distance, and World Athletics recommends laying them out 0.1% long. A GPS watch that records the line you actually ran can therefore show a little more than the race distance, and so a slightly faster pace than the course markers.

Treadmills and pace

A treadmill shows its belt speed in km/h or mph, and the pace follows exactly: 10 km/h is 6:00 per km, 6 mph is 10:00 per mile. The converter uses the belt speed as it is; it does not correct for running indoors, where there is no wind and the ground does not change.

Sources

• NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C — the mile is 5,280 ft = 1,609.344 m
• World Athletics Book of Rules — Technical Rules 14 (the 400 m track) and 55 (road race distances and course measurement)

Limitations

• Paces from 1:00 to 60:00 per km (1 to 60 km/h) are accepted; a pace faster than 2:00 per km is flagged so you can check the unit.
• Finish times assume one even pace over the whole distance; hills, wind, turns and crowds change real times. For splits, negative splits and a pace band use the running pace calculator.
• Lap times are for lane 1 of a 400 m track; outer lanes are longer.
• This converts paces; it does not predict what time you can run. The race time predictor estimates that from a recent race.

Privacy

Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.