How to Calculate Half Marathon Paces

The 13.1 mile distance of the half marathon has been growing in popularity. This middle-distance race is achievable with enough training, but does not demand the sometimes daunting dedication of a full marathon. To be successful in a race this long, you must regulate your pace by figuring out how long it takes you to run each mile. Calculating your pace time during training can help you estimate your finish time and help you gauge whether you need more training to achieve your time goal.

Instructions

    • 1

      Find the finish time of either your last race or your last long training run. An alternative is to use the length of time you hope it will take to finish the half marathon. Most races that use chip timers will have race results online. You must keep track of your own training run times.

    • 2

      Divide the finish time by the number of miles run. A previous half marathon's time or your goal half marathon time will be divided by 13.1. A 10K run will be divided by 6.2. The result equals the average number of minutes it will take to run each mile of the race.

    • 3

      Subtract your goal pace from your current pace to find how much faster per mile you must run to achieve your race goal. If you wish to run a half marathon in 1 hour and 40 minutes, your pace would be 7 minute, 36 second per mile. If you currently run a half marathon in 1 hour and 50 minutes, your pace is an 8 minute, 24 second mile; you must run 48 seconds per mile faster to achieve your half marathon time goal.