Racing smarter

What pace is a 23-minute 5K?

What pace is a 23-minute 5K?

22:30 over 5 km (3.11 mi) is 4:30/km (7:15/mi), held from the first step to the last. There is no rounding slack in that number: run the first kilometre at 4:40/km and you have already spent ten seconds you will not get back cheaply.

22:30 asks for 4:30/km (7:14/mi). It is the stage where most runners first meet the idea that a 5K is a hard race rather than a short one. The training that gets people here is usually three to four runs a week with one faster session, and the total volume matters less than the consistency. What is distinctive about this target is how much a warm-up is worth. At 22 minutes, the first kilometre is a large fraction of the race, and starting cold typically costs 10 to 15 seconds you cannot get back. Fifteen minutes of easy jogging with a few short accelerations before the start is the cheapest improvement available at this distance.

What the splits look like

And in miles, for a course measured that way:

Where should I be at halfway?

Even pace puts you through halfway at 11:15. Most people who finish this time went through slightly slower than that, not faster — a 2% negative split means halfway at 11:29 and a second half of 11:02.

The decision rule for race day: if you reach halfway more than 0:14 ahead of 11:15, you are not ahead of schedule, you are borrowing. Ease back to 4:30/km (7:15/mi) and hold it.

What if my watch measures the course long?

Almost every watch does. A 5K that reads 1.5% long on your wrist means you have to run 4:26/km by the watch to finish in 22:30 by the clock. That is the pace to put on the screen, and it is why pacing off a watch's average-pace field alone tends to leave people a minute or two short.

See this on your own runs →