How this instrument works
Pace is the simplest way to describe how fast you covered ground: total time divided by total distance, expressed here in minutes per mile. It works the same way whether the activity was a run, a walk, a hike, or a bike ride — anything with a start time, a finish time, and a known distance in between reduces to this one division.
This is the general-purpose version of the calculation: enter any time and any distance and get a pace back, with no assumptions about the activity, the distance unit, or the training context. If you're specifically tracking running training sessions, checking a marathon goal, or reading lap splits from a track workout, this site's running-pace, marathon-pace, and splits calculators run the identical division but are laid out around those specific situations.
Pace and speed are inverses of each other and describe the same underlying rate two different ways: pace answers 'how long per mile,' speed answers 'how many miles per hour.' Runners and walkers overwhelmingly talk in pace because a lower number, running each mile faster, intuitively reads as better performance, while cyclists and drivers overwhelmingly talk in speed because a higher number means the same thing — the underlying arithmetic doesn't care which convention you use.
- Enter the total elapsed Time (minutes) for however you covered the distance.
- Enter the total Distance (miles) covered in that time.
- Read Pace (min per mile) — the steady per-mile rate that time and distance imply.
- For a training log, a marathon goal, or a lap-split table specifically, this site's running-pace, marathon-pace, and splits calculators are laid out for those exact cases.
Worked example — 30 minutes over 5 miles
Enter a time of 30 minutes and a distance of 5 miles. Pace = 30 ÷ 5 = 6.00 minutes per mile — an even 6:00-per-mile rate, whether that 30 minutes came from a run, a fast walk, or any other timed effort over that distance.
Questions
How do I convert pace from minutes per mile to minutes per km?
Divide the minutes-per-mile figure by 1.60934, the number of kilometres in a mile — a 6:00-per-mile pace becomes roughly 3:44 per km. This calculator outputs minutes per mile directly; for a pace already logged in kilometres, this site's running-pace calculator accepts distance in km instead.
What's the difference between pace and speed?
They're inverses describing the same rate: pace is time per unit distance (minutes per mile), speed is distance per unit time (miles per hour). To go from pace to speed, divide 60 by the pace in minutes — a 6:00-per-mile pace equals 60 ÷ 6 = 10 mph. Runners and walkers typically think in pace; cyclists and drivers typically think in speed.
Can I use this for a walk or hike instead of a run?
Yes — the division doesn't know or care what activity produced the time and distance. A brisk 30-minute, 2-mile walk returns a 15:00-per-mile pace using exactly the same formula as a 30-minute, 5-mile run. If the hike involved significant elevation gain, this site's hiking-time calculator (Naismith's Rule) accounts for climbing separately from flat distance.
Why is my pace different every time I run the same route?
Because pace reflects your actual effort and conditions on that day — fatigue, heat, wind, terrain, and how hard you pushed all move the number, even over an identical route. Comparing pace across multiple runs of the same route over weeks is a reasonable way to track fitness trends; comparing a single run against a fixed goal pace is what marathon-pace and race-predictor are built for.
Does this calculator work for distances measured in units other than miles?
The output is labelled minutes per mile, so enter the distance in miles for the result to read correctly. If your distance is in kilometres, either convert it to miles first by dividing km by 1.60934, or use this site's running-pace calculator, which is set up to take kilometres directly and returns minutes per km.