How to use the marathon pace chart
Find your goal time in the first column and read across. You get the pace per km and per mile, the treadmill speed and the clock time at each split.
Write the halfway and 30K times on your hand, or set them as watch alerts. They are the two checks that matter most.
The chart goes up in 5 minute steps. For a goal between two rows, the calculator above gives exact numbers.
Even or negative splits
Even pace is the target for most people. The marathon punishes a fast start more than any other distance.
A quick first half feels easy at the time. After 30 km, with your carbohydrate stores low, it costs far more.
A slight negative split is safer: the first half about 1% slower, the second a little quicker. For a 4 hour marathon, pass halfway in about 2:01:12 instead of 2:00:00.
Then run the second half in 1:58:48. If you feel good at 30K, speed up then, not before.
Why your watch will disagree with the chart
A marathon course is measured along the shortest line a runner could take. You will not run that line.
GPS also reads long among tall buildings and on bends. Watches often show 42.4 km or more at the finish.
Pace off the watch and you will be behind the chart by the end. Check the official markers against the split columns instead, or run a second or two per km quicker than chart pace.
Find your goal pace with the plan builder
Not sure what to aim for? A recent race tells you. Put a half marathon or 10K time into the race time predictor, or look it up in the VDOT chart.
That marathon time assumes you have done the long runs. On a first marathon, expect to be a few minutes slower.
Then build a plan from your race time. Every session gets its own pace, and the marathon pace runs are set to your target row.
The VDOT column is the fitness score each finish time represents in Jack Daniels' model. Equal VDOTs at different distances are the same fitness, laid out in the VDOT chart.