What’s a Good 5K Time? Averages by Age and Sex

The typical American 5K finisher crosses the line in about 36 minutes. That was the median across 2.2 million results from U.S. 5K road races in 2024, with men at 32 minutes and women at 39 (Outside). It’s slower than most people guess, and slower per mile than the median marathoner runs, which says more about who enters 5Ks than about the distance. This is what the data says the typical runner does, how age and sex change it, and the times that put you near the front of your age group.

The average 5K time

Brian Rock, who also tracks marathon results and the Boston qualifying cutoff, pulled 2.2 million finish times from U.S. 5K road races in 2024 for Outside. He kept times between 12 minutes and an hour and runners aged 10 to 79, so anyone who took longer than an hour isn’t counted. The median finisher ran about 36:00, or 11:35 per mile. The men’s median was 32:00 and the women’s was 39:00, which works out to 10:18 and 12:33 per mile (Outside).

Other counts land close by. RunRepeat’s 2018 figures put the U.S. average at 39:02, with men at 35:22 and women at 41:21 (RunRepeat), and its percentile data, drawn from 35 million results in more than 28,000 races over 20 years, puts the median at 34:37 (RunRepeat). Averages come out slower than medians because the slowest finishers pull an average up far more than the fastest pull it down, which is why the median is the better picture of the runner in the middle of the pack.

The 5K is also the biggest field in the sport. RunRepeat counted 2.6 million U.S. 5K finishers in 2018, 61 percent of them women, with an average age of 40 (RunRepeat). A field that broad shows up in the pace. The median 5K finisher in Rock’s data ran 11:35 per mile, while the median marathoner in his 2024 data held 10:08 per mile for more than eight times the distance (Running with Rock).

5K times by age and sex

Age changes 5K times less than you might expect until your 50s. Rock’s medians slow by roughly a minute per decade from the 20s into the 40s, and the steps grow after that, to two to four minutes per decade for women from their 50s and for men from their 60s (Outside).

The fastest medians belong to 15- to 18-year-olds, at 26:16 for boys and 33:44 for girls. The gap between men and women is about six minutes from 19 through the 40s and grows to eight or nine minutes after 50.

The spread inside each group is wide. Among runners in their 30s, the middle half of men finished between 25:45 and 37:39, and the middle half of women between 31:05 and 44:37 (Outside). Keep in mind who these numbers describe: people who entered a race and finished it inside an hour. Beating the median for your age and sex means you finished ahead of half of them. The half marathon and marathon data show the same shape, with the bigger steps arriving after 50.

What’s a good 5K time?

The median tells you where the middle of the field finishes. These are the marks that put you ahead of most of it.

The top 10 percent. Across RunRepeat’s 35 million results, 25:20 put a runner in the fastest 10 percent overall, with the line at 23:26 for men and 28:24 for women. The top 1 percent started at 18:40 (RunRepeat). Rock’s 2024 data draws the same line by age for runners 30 and older (Outside).

Round numbers. Breaking 30 minutes takes 9:39 per mile. It puts you ahead of about 70 percent of finishers in RunRepeat’s data, and it’s faster than the median for women in every age group in Rock’s data and for men 30 and older. Breaking 25 takes 8:03 per mile and puts you a little inside the fastest 10 percent. Breaking 20 takes 6:26 per mile, and only 1.85 percent of the 2024 results got there. Every goal from 15:00 to 45:00 is on the 5K pace chart with its per-mile and per-kilometer pace.

Age grading. Age grading compares your time with the standard for your age and sex and turns it into a percentage. World Masters Athletics calls 60 percent local class, 70 regional class, 80 national class and 90 world class (World Masters Athletics). Under the 2025 road standards approved by USA Track & Field’s masters long-distance council, the medians in Rock’s data grade out at roughly 40 to 50 percent, and 60 percent works out to these times (Age-Grade Tables).

For a 35-year-old man, 60 percent is quicker than the top-10-percent line for men in their 30s, and for a 35-year-old woman it’s quicker than the top 5 percent of women in their 30s (24:56). Age grading also lets you compare a 5K at 60 with one you ran at 35, and it shows whether you’re still improving in the years when your times slow.

What training looks like. In a 2014 survey of recreational runners, the 1,387 who reported a recent 5K typically ran a median of 28 miles a week, and their median 5K was 20:35 for men and 26:01 for women. The authors note their runners were younger and faster than a typical big-race field, so read it as what a group of committed runners does rather than an average (Vickers and Vertosick, 2016).

How long does it take to walk a 5K?

A 5K is 3.1 miles. At a brisk walk, which the CDC puts at 2.5 miles per hour or faster, it takes 1:14:34 or less, and at 3 miles per hour it takes 1:02:08 (CDC). A meta-analysis covering 23,111 healthy adults found normal walking speeds ranging from 1.43 meters per second for men in their 40s down to 0.94 for women over 80 (Bohannon and Williams Andrews, 2011). That’s 18:42 to 28:27 per mile, or about 58 minutes to almost an hour and a half for the full 5K. If you plan to walk some or all of a race, check the course time limit before you register.

The world records

Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia holds the men’s road record, 12:49 at the Cursa dels Nassos in Barcelona on December 31, 2021, which is 4:08 per mile (Wikipedia). Beatrice Chebet of Kenya ran 13:54 at the same race on December 31, 2024, and became the first woman to break 14 minutes for the distance on any surface, track or road (World Athletics). World Athletics ratified it in April 2025 as the women’s record for a mixed race (World Athletics).

What’s a good 5K time for you

The averages are context, and a poor way to pick a goal. A good time for you is one your current training supports, and the best evidence for it is a recent race. Put a recent 5K into the VDOT calculator and it returns Jack Daniels’ training paces for easy, threshold and interval work, along with what the same fitness points to at other distances. If your last race was a 10K or a half, the race time predictor works it back to a 5K.

To get faster from there, The Easy Run Decoded covers why most of your running should stay easy, and the tempo run guide covers the workout that raises the pace you can hold. When you’re ready to go longer, the 10K averages and the 10K pace chart are the next step up.

FAQ

Is a 30-minute 5K good?

Yes. It’s six minutes faster than the 2024 median of about 36:00, and faster than the median for women in every age group and for men 30 and older. It works out to 9:39 per mile.

What is the average 5K time for men?

The median for U.S. men in 2024 was 32:00, or 10:18 per mile. Men aged 15 to 18 had the fastest median, at 26:16.

What is the average 5K time for women?

The median for U.S. women in 2024 was 39:00, or 12:33 per mile. Women aged 15 to 18 had the fastest median, at 33:44.

What is the average 5K pace?

About 11:35 per mile, or 7:12 per kilometer, for the 2024 median finish of 36:00.

Is a sub-20 5K good?

It’s rare. Only 1.85 percent of the 2.2 million U.S. results in 2024 were under 20 minutes, which takes 6:26 per mile.

How long does it take to walk a 5K?

About an hour at 3 miles per hour, and up to about an hour and a quarter at 2.5 miles per hour, the low end of what the CDC counts as brisk walking.