Average 5K Time

Average 5K time: the published figures

There is no single average 5K time. The answer depends on who was counted: every timed race in a country, one large set of race results, or one event. These are the figures we could trace to a published source, with the people each one covers.

A median is the time of the middle finisher: half were faster and half were slower. A mean is every time added up and divided by the number of finishers, so a few very slow finishes move it more than they move a median. Two dashes mean the source gives no figure for that group. The shaded rows are not averages: they mark the fastest and slowest tenth of finishers.

Average 5K pace per mile and per km

The same averages as a pace: the finish time divided by 3.1069 miles, or by 5 kilometers. The 5K pace chart has the pace for every finish time.

What is a good 5K time?

Good is a judgment, not a measurement, so this page does not name one good 5K time. What can be measured is where a time falls among finishers. In RunRepeat’s 35 million race results:

• The median was 34:37 (31:28 for men, 37:28 for women). A time under that was faster than half of the finishers.
• One finisher in ten was under 25:20 (23:26 for men, 28:24 for women).
• One in ten took longer than 50:04, so eight in ten finished between 25:20 and 50:04.

These marks come from one set of results and would shift with another. The calculator at the top shows which of them your time is faster than.

Average 5K time by age

None of the sources used on this page publishes average 5K times by age group, and we did not find a large published set of 5K results that does. RunRepeat’s comparison can rank a time within an age group, but it does not print the averages behind that. So there is no by-age table here: it would mean printing numbers we cannot trace to the people they describe.

Two published by-age figures come close, although neither is a 5K time:

• Everyday runs. Garmin reports the average pace per mile of runs recorded on its watches, men and women together: 9:16 at 20 to 29, 9:29 at 30 to 39, 9:39 at 40 to 49, 9:56 at 50 to 59, 10:22 at 60 to 69 and 10:57 at 70 and over. Those runs average 4.82 miles, so this is everyday running, not racing.
• The marathon. In US marathons in 2024 the average finish time was 4:19 at ages 18 to 24 and 5:35 at 65 and over. The average marathon time by age has every group.

Average 5K time for beginners

No source measures beginners as a group: race results record a time, not how long someone has been running. The closest published figures come from parkrun, a free, weekly, timed 5K that people walk as well as run.

• parkrun gives its average finish time as 22:17 in 2005 and 32:30 in 2020. It slowed in each of 16 years in a row, which parkrun puts down to welcoming more people for whom exercise was not the norm. It gives the 2023 average as over 32 minutes.
• A study followed 223,224 adults who first took part in parkrun in Australia between April 2011 and January 2017. Each person’s own average finish time over their first three years had a mean of 33:00. For the 76.4% who came only a few times it was 33:24.

Neither figure is for beginners only. The first counts everyone at parkrun that year. The second counts everyone in their first three years at parkrun, whatever running they had done before. For scale, 32:30 is 10:28 per mile.

How it works

Enter your 5K time. The calculator divides it by the distance to give your pace per mile and per kilometer, then sets your time beside each published figure for the 5K and shows the gap.

Choose men or women to keep that group’s figures. A source that gives one figure for everyone stays in the list either way. The count in the result, 6 of 7 for the time the page opens with, is how many of the averages in the list your time is faster than. The marks for the fastest and slowest tenth are listed below the averages and are not part of that count.

The second table gives the times at other distances that two standard formulas rate as equal to yours: Riegel’s formula, which the race time predictor uses, and the Daniels and Gilbert oxygen cost model, known as VDOT.

The formula

pace per mile = time ÷ 3.1069
pace per km   = time ÷ 5
gap           = your time − theirs
  under zero: you are faster

Equal time at another distance
Riegel: T2 = T1 × (D2 ÷ D1)^1.06
VDOT:   the time at D2 with the
        same VDOT score as T1 at D1

3.1069 is 5 km in miles (1 mile = 1.609344 km). T1 and D1 are your time and distance, and T2 is the equal time at distance D2. The VO2 max calculator shows how a VDOT score is worked out.

Worked example

A 5K in 30:00, compared with everyone.

1. Pace per mile: 30:00 ÷ 3.1069 miles = 9:39. Pace per km: 30:00 ÷ 5 = 6:00.
2. US 5K finishers, 2015, men (median): 29:43. 30:00 is 0:17 slower.
3. US 5K finishers, 2015, women (median): 36:15. 30:00 is 6:15 faster.
4. parkrun, worldwide, 2020, everyone (mean): 32:30. 30:00 is 2:30 faster.
5. Of the 7 averages in the list, 30:00 is faster than 6.
6. Equal 10K time: Riegel gives 30:00 × (10 ÷ 5)^1.06 = 1:02:33. The VDOT model gives 1:02:23.

Limits of the data: who was counted

Each figure on this page describes the people below and nobody else. All of them finished: people who started and dropped out are not in any of these averages. All of them entered a timed event, so no figure here describes runners who do not take part in one. The sources cover different events and different years, which is one reason their figures differ.

• US 5K finishers, 2015. Finishers of timed 5K races in the United States in 2015: 7,643,600 finishes, counted by Running USA with data from Athlinks. Used here: the median. Source: Running USA (2016).
• 35 million results, to 2017. RunRepeat’s comparison of 35 million results from more than 28,000 races over 20 years, published in 2017. It does not list the races. Its study of American runners the same year drew on 34,680,750 results from 28,732 races, 9,989,369 of them in the 5K. Used here: the median, fastest 10% mark and slowest 10% mark. Source: RunRepeat (2017).
• parkrun, worldwide, 2020. Everyone who completed a parkrun in 2020, walkers included. parkrun is a free, weekly, timed 5K, not a race, and it says its events were paused around the globe when the pandemic hit that year. Used here: the mean. Source: parkrun (2021).
• First 3 years at parkrun, Australia. 223,224 adults whose first parkrun in Australia was between April 2011 and January 2017. The figure is the mean of each person’s own average finish time over their first three years (33.0 minutes in the paper). Used here: the mean. Source: Grunseit and others, Health Promotion International (2024).
• Came only a few times, parkrun Australia. The 170,544 of those 223,224 adults (76.4%) who took part about four times in three years. Mean of each person’s own average finish time (33.4 minutes in the paper). Used here: the mean. Source: Grunseit and others, Health Promotion International (2024).
• parkrun, 2005. Everyone who completed a parkrun in 2005, its first full year. Used here: the mean. Source: parkrun (2021).

Plates & Pace is not affiliated with any of these organizations.

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Sources

1. Running USA. 2016 State of the Sport: U.S. Road Race Trends. 5 May 2016. Finishers and median times in 2015, by distance and sex (data: Running USA powered by Athlinks). Read in the copy published by German Road Races.
2. Nikolova V. Compare Running Finish Times: 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, Marathon. RunRepeat; 15 November 2017, updated 1 March 2024. Percentiles from 35 million results in more than 28,000 races over 20 years.
3. Nikolova V, Andersen JJ. American Runners Have Never Been Slower (Mega Study). RunRepeat; 4 July 2017. 34,680,750 results from 28,732 races, with the number of results at each distance.
4. Andersen JJ. The State of US Marathons 2025. RunRepeat, with World Athletics; 28 August 2025. 10,482,628 results from 6,352 US marathons, 1984 to 2025.
5. parkrun. 17 years of parkrun. 1 October 2021. Average finish time in 2005 and in 2020.
6. parkrun. Celebrating 21 years of parkrun. 1 October 2025. Average finish times over 32 minutes in 2023.
7. Grunseit AC, Huang BH, Merom D, Cranney L, Bauman A, Rogers K. Coming back for more: individual participation patterns in the physical activity initiative parkrun in Australia. Health Promotion International. 2024;39(4):daae098. Table 1.
8. Garmin. Trends in running: New data shows how Garmin runners hit their stride. 3 June 2026. Average pace per mile of recorded runs, by sex and by age group.
9. Riegel PS. Athletic records and human endurance. American Scientist. 1981;69(3):285-290. The formula for equal times at other distances.
10. Daniels J, Gilbert J. Oxygen Power: Performance Tables for Distance Runners. 1979. The oxygen cost model behind VDOT.
11. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI), Special Publication 811, Appendix B.9: 1 mile = 1.609344 km exactly.