A marathon is 42.195 kilometers, or 26.219 miles. The pace is the finish time divided by that distance. A chart of “average marathon time by age” mixes different courses, weather, and fields, so the number you saw on another site is not a standard you have to hit.
The bands here are wide planning ranges for recreational finishers. They are rounded coaching ranges, not results from one study. A recent half marathon, scaled with the race time predictor, is a tighter personal estimate than any age row.
Planning ranges
| Age | Finish range | Faster end | Slower end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20–29 | 3:30–4:30 | 4:59/km (8:01/mi) | 6:24/km (10:18/mi) |
| 30–39 | 3:45–4:45 | 5:20/km (8:35/mi) | 6:45/km (10:52/mi) |
| 40–49 | 3:45–5:00 | 5:20/km (8:35/mi) | 7:07/km (11:27/mi) |
| 50–59 | 4:00–5:30 | 5:41/km (9:09/mi) | 7:49/km (12:35/mi) |
| 60+ | 4:30–6:00 | 6:24/km (10:18/mi) | 8:32/km (13:44/mi) |
Four hours sits inside the 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s bands and outside the faster edge of the 60+ band. That does not mean a 60-year-old cannot run 4:00. It means 4:00 is a strong recreational time at that age, and the required pace is still 5:41/km.
The full clock-to-pace table from 2:30 to 6:00 is on how long a marathon takes. The marathon pace calculator prints the 5K splits for a time you type in.
How to run a sub-4 hour marathon is the checkpoint list for that one goal. Half marathon times by age is the shorter race. Doubling the half-marathon clock skips the extra fatigue of the second 21 km.