Pace & Speed Converter

How do you convert running pace to speed?

Divide 60 by your pace to get speed: 60 ÷ pace-in-min/km gives km/h, and 60 ÷ pace-in-min/mile gives mph. So a 5:00 min/km pace is 60 ÷ 5 = 12 km/h, and a 10:00 min/mile pace is 60 ÷ 10 = 6 mph. Pace and speed are reciprocals — one measures time per distance, the other distance per time — which is why a smaller pace number means a faster runner. The converter above handles the arithmetic in both directions the instant you type.

To enter a pace that includes seconds, convert it to decimal minutes first: divide the seconds by 60 and add them to the minutes, so 5 minutes 30 seconds becomes 5.5 and 6 minutes 45 seconds becomes 6.75. As you type, the tool shows the MM:SS equivalent as a hint under the field so you can confirm you entered it correctly. As a worked example you can check, enter 5 into the min/km field: the converter returns 12 km/h, 7.45645 mph, 3.33333 m/s and a min/mile of about 8.04672 (8:03).

What pace do I need for a marathon or half marathon time?

A sub-4-hour marathon needs a pace faster than 5:41 min/km (9:09 min/mile), which is about 10.55 km/h or 6.55 mph. The maths: a marathon is 42.195 km, and 240 minutes ÷ 42.195 km = 5.688 min/km, so anything quicker than that finishes inside four hours. The same method works for any target — divide your goal time in minutes by the race distance in km (or miles) to get the pace you must hold.

Because races almost always involve slowing over the closing stages, most runners aim a few seconds per km faster than the bare target to bank a buffer. Click the quick-reference tiles above to load common race paces straight into the converter, then read across to see the equivalent km/h, mph and min/mile. For turning those speeds into other units like m/s, knots or Mach, use the speed converter.

How do I convert min/km to min/mile?

Multiply your min/km pace by 1.60934 to get min/mile, because a mile is 1.60934 km long. So a 5:00 min/km pace is 5 × 1.60934 ≈ 8.05, which is 8 minutes 3 seconds per mile; a 4:00 min/km pace is about 6:26 min/mile. UK runners frequently switch between the two because parkruns and 10Ks are measured in kilometres while many older races and treadmills use miles. To convert the race distances themselves between km and miles, use the length converter.

How do I convert swimming pace to speed?

Your speed in m/s is 100 divided by your seconds per 100 m, and multiplying by 3.6 gives km/h. So a 90 s/100 m pace is 100 ÷ 90 = 1.11 m/s, which is 4.0 km/h; an easy 2:00/100 m is 3.0 km/h and a fast 1:20/100 m is 4.5 km/h. Swimming uses seconds per 100 m rather than minutes per km because pool lengths make 100 m the natural yardstick, but the underlying speed converts to the same km/h and mph as running or cycling.

What is a good running pace?

For UK recreational runners, a comfortable jogging pace is roughly 6:00–7:30 min/km (8–10 km/h), while a 5:00 min/km pace is solid club-runner territory. Beginners often start around 8:00–10:00 min/km and speed up as fitness improves, and elite marathon runners hold close to 3:00 min/km (20 km/h) for the full distance. There is no single "correct" pace — the right one depends on your fitness, the distance you are covering and whether you are running easy, tempo or race effort.

A useful way to gauge effort is the talk test: at an easy pace you can hold a conversation, at tempo pace you can manage short sentences, and at race pace you can only get out a word or two. The converter lets you translate whatever pace feels sustainable into km/h and mph so you can compare it against treadmill settings, GPS-watch speed readouts and published race paces on the same scale.