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There’s a reason 10K is such a common distance for mass-participation road races. It’s an achievable next step for people who have caught the running bug after successfully completing a couch to 5K plan, and 10K training plans are also a great way for seasoned runners to improve their speed endurance. If you’re already running regularly, you don’t need to commit to long marathon or half marathon training plans.
Once you’ve signed up for an event, it’s wise to choose a target time so you can select an appropriate training plan and adjust the pace in each type of training run accordingly. It also means you can put yourself in the correct start wave on race day.
To help you work out what time to shoot for we looked at data held by RunRepeat and Running Level to identify the average 10K race times.
Running Level holds data from 50 competitive UK races between 2016 and 2020. It calculates a good 10K time as 49min 43sec, defining “good” as the average across all ages and genders.
RunRepeat works out its averages from 35 million race results covering four distances (5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon) but doesn’t specify how many 10K results it bases its calculations on. It reports that 1hr 2min 8sec is the average 10K time.
According to Running Level’s analysis of competitive UK races, the average 10K time for a man was 46min 43sec.
RunRepeat’s average is slower, indicating that the average man takes 57min 15 sec to finish.
Running Level found that 54min 13sec was the average time it took women to complete a 10K in the UK races it looked at.
RunRepeat, looking at a different data set, put the average 10K time for women at 1hr 6min 54sec.
Running Level splits up 10K times by age but each age group is split into beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced and elite categories. We combined these times to work out the average. Go to Running Level’s page to see which category you fall into and the average time for your age and category.
| Age | Average 10K Time |
|---|---|
| 20 | 1hr 8min 23sec |
| 25 | 1hr 8min 15sec |
| 30 | 1hr 8min 23sec |
| 35 | 1hr 9min 14sec |
| 40 | 1hr 10min 56sec |
| 45 | 1hr 13min 34sec |
| 50 | 1hr 12min 4sec |
| 55 | 1hr 16min 21sec |
| 60 | 1hr 16min 11sec |
| 65 | 1hr 21min 21sec |
| 70 | 1hr 22min 26sec |
| 75 | 1hr 28min 54sec |
| 80 | 1hr 38min 3sec |
| 85 | 1hr 53min 30sec |
| 90 | 2hr 21min 9sec |
An elite 10K is run on the track and isn’t comparable to the road races amateur runners take part in. But in case you were wondering, the men’s outdoor 10,000 meters world record is 26min 1sec, set by Ugandan Joshua Cheptegi in October 2020. The women’s world record is held by Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey, who ran 29min 1.03 sec in June 2021.
If you’ve completed a 5K before, use our running pace charts to work out your per-mile pace, then aim for a 10K race pace between 10 and 30 seconds slower per mile.
If you’ve already raced a 10K and have been consistent with your running, maintaining your level of fitness since the race, a good starting point is 30 seconds faster than your current best time.
| Finish time | Min per-km pace | Min per-mile pace |
| 1hr 10min | 7:00 | 11:16 |
| 60min | 6:00 | 9:39 |
| 55min | 5:30 | 8:51 |
| 50min | 5:00 | 8:03 |
| 45min | 4:30 | 7:15 |
| 40min | 4:00 | 6:26 |
| 38min | 3:48 | 6:07 |
| 35min | 3:30 | 5:38 |
Adam Smith is an accomplished individual who serves as an chief contributor at Healthify Magazine, a leading publication dedicated to promoting health and wellness. With a passion for empowering individuals to live healthier lives, Adam brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his role.
