Marathon pace chart and printable pace band

Even pace is the goal time divided by the distance: 42.195 km for the marathon, 21.0975 km for the half. The chart lists the elapsed time at every km or mile marker and the short final split to the finish line, 195 m in a marathon.

The pace shown is rounded to the whole second. The cumulative times are not, so they still add up to your exact goal. A 3:00:00 marathon is 4:15.95 per km, which is why the 40 km split reads 2:50:38 and not the 2:50:40 you get from 4:16 × 40.

A negative split means the second half is faster than the first. Here the rule is explicit: the second half takes a set percentage less time than the first half, and each half is run at an even pace. At 2% on a 3:00:00 marathon, the first half takes 1:30:55 at 4:19 per km and the second half 1:29:05 at 4:13 per km.

Most runners should stay between even and about 2%. Large studies of big-city marathons show the opposite problem is far more common: a New York analysis of 190,228 finishers found that every performance group ran a positive split, slowing in the second half, and that faster runners varied their speed less (Santos-Lozano et al., 2014).

A pace band is a paper strip on your wrist with the elapsed time at each marker. Check it at every km or mile: a few seconds up or down is noise, a steady drift of more than 10 seconds per km in the first half usually means the pace is too ambitious.

Course profile, wind and heat change what a goal pace costs. Treat the band as a target for effort on a flat, cool day, and adjust on hilly or warm courses rather than chasing the numbers.

The tables below cover the goals people search for most: sub-3, 3:15, 3:30, 3:45, 4:00, 4:30 and 5:00 in the marathon, and 1:30, 1:45 and 2:00 in the half. Each table lists the 5 km checkpoints, halfway and the finish at even pace. Use the calculator above for any other time or a negative split.