What Is The
Average Time People Run a 5k Marathon?
Are you planning to participate in a 5K marathon run? May be your city has organized a marathon race and you have plans to take part. It is pretty obvious then you are wondering what such marathon entails in terms of training and how long it will take you to finish the race?
If you are new don’t be anxious about it. For the old-timers just dig in like always and race.
Running 5K mostly organized as fun run is one of the best exercises for shedding off some weight.
Completing a 5K marathon is not a hard task. Most people will do it, and you can also be one of them. 5K is a 5 Kilometers (3.1 Miles) long race. The 5K is the short form of 5000 Meters which is equivalent to 5 Kilometers since 1000 Meters is 1 Kilometer (KM). 1 Mile being equal to 1.6 Km, 5Km is equivalent to 3.1 Miles
Many people starting out running get anxious about their first run. They will wonder about do’s and don’ts, what kind of attire to wear, what to eat on the material day, how much water to take, how long it will take them to run the marathon so on and so forth.
But if you are a rookie into running don’t be anxious about it. Completing a 5K marathon is not a hard task. Most people will do it including you if you want to.
World Champions Runners
As at 2019 the current IAAF world records holder for the outdoor 5K are:
- Men’s category: Julien Wanders, 13:29
- Women’s category: Sifan Hassan, 13:44
Average 5k Time By Age
The following data shows the average 5K time for age and sex.
Age Group Men Women
0-15 34:43 37:55
- 16-19 29:39 37:39
- 20-24 29:27 36:22
- 25-29 31:09 36:16
- 30-34 31:27 38:41
- 35-39 33:44 37:21
- 40-44 32:26 38:26
- 45-49 33:13 39:19
- 50-54 34:30 41:20
- 55-59 37:33 45:18
- 60-64 40:33 45:49
- 65-99 42:59 50:13
You can also rate yourself with the below rages. If you run;
- 12 to 14 minutes you are an Olympic athlete, best of the best.
- 14 -17 Minutes you are very competitive and among the best runners in the world.
- 17-21 Minutes you are fast and enough to enter in enter in to paid marathons
- 21-25 Minutes You are an average runner
- 25-30 Minutes you are fit to run
- 30-35 Minutes Runs for fun
- 35-50 Minutes not good or unfit
- Above 50 Minutes trying to run
You want to throw your age in to a Calculator and see the suggested time you may take?
Age Average Time
0 – 15 34:43
16 – 19 29:39
20 – 24 29:27
25 – 29 31:09
30 – 34 31:27
35 – 39 33:44
40 – 44 32:26
45 – 49 33:13
50 – 54 34:30
55 – 59 37:33
60 – 64 40:33
65 – 99 42:59
Average 5k Time For 40 Year Old
A 40 year old running a 5k marathon is also an achievable task. What is important is to put a daily schedule to prepare for the race. If you are a 40 year old and you want to participate in 5K race you need to be in good shape and then be mentally ready to do the run. If you are wondering the time to take in running a 5K distance to know that the average recorded for people of 40 years age is 35.26.
Average 5k Time For 40 Year Old Woman
Most of the female runners doing a 5k run will be doing 34 – 40 minutes. That’s an average figure for those physically fit.
Average 5k Time For 50 Year Old Female
For a 50 year old female a 5K race is still an achievable feat as long as she is reasonably fit and been training. Training can take 4 weeks and then include a pre-race fitness exercises such as swimming cycling etc. For this age you will be realistic to expect and average finish time of 34:30 for the 5K marathon.average 5k time for 50 year old male
For the obvious reasons an average guy of 50 years will complete the race much faster than a female counterpart of the same age. While a woman of such age will take 41:20, men take average time of 34:30 to complete the 5K marathon.
According to ACE fitness HYPERLINK “acefitness.org”organisation it is important to do exercises apart from running. Exercises like goblet squads, single-leg dead lifts, lateral lunges, help improve your lower body and strength to pace. These exercises are of important to a 50 year old who wants to run 5k marathon. Having done due preparations for the marathon a 50 year old male will be expected to spend an average of 34 minutes to complete the race.
Average 5k Time For 60 Year Old Male
At this age or beyond you need to set up a good fitness plan. This is important and should be incorporated within the training schedule. Light exercises such as swimming, walking, cycling, and elliptical training is good. A 60 year old will spend approximately 40:33 minutes to complete 5K.
Average 5k Time For Beginners
For a total novice runner, 5K is not a hard feat to achieve. One important thing to note is whether you run and end up walking or you jog it all the way through, the most important part about a race is to complete it, don’t forget that. If you are new to running, or have just started running don’t compare yourself with others, doing that is being unrealistic. You should remember, everybody is unique and our bodies respond differently but to complete the race successfully what is needed is patience and practice.
Prior to the marathon D-day, it is important to do some preparations exercises if you have not been in to running before. This will prepare you physically and mentally for the big day of the marathon. It is good to prepare the body and mind before the big run and you can achieve this by doing some t test runs to build up resilient and endurance. New people into running can do training sessions of 5 minutes to 10 minutes, gradually increasing the training duration.
Here are also some more fitness exercises and practice to start doing before the marathon.
- Swimming
- Cycling
- Walking
- Strength building
- Interval
- Tempo run
Now, after due preparations, it good to have some expectations of the time you will take to accomplish running a 5k race. As a new kid on the block the average time you expect having others done so is 32:45 minutes. For a beginner to do anything below that is too ambitious to expect. But with harder training, exercises and time, you can achieve much better results than thisAverage 5k Time For Men
Normally men run faster than women. These are statistics showing men’s 5K run time.
You may want to know the average time your age group will take to run 5K marathon. Below is a recorded average 5K time for different age groups.
Tips To Get Faster
If you want to improve your speed and complete the race in less time than the average Joe you need to follow the following tips to achieve that goal;
- Eating well, healthy food is key.
- Train for endurance. Improve endurance by doing interval training and incorporate treadmill and hilly terrain training.
- Morning test runs
- Good sleep and resting are essential.
- Work out to increase muscle mass.
- Warm-up before the race. Do it 15 before the race.
If you want to get better results than the average following is a training schedule for a different category of runners.
Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced | |
Week 1 | Walk Run
75 25 | Walk Run
50 50 | Walk Run
10 90 |
Week 2 | 60 40 | 30 70 | 10 90 |
Week 3 | 30 70 | 10 90 | 0 100 |
Week 4 | 10 90 | 0 100 | 0 100 |
Now you know your category is you are ready to go and race.
I ran until I was in my late forties. I just started running again, after 20 plus years. Not sure why, maybe I needed a changeup in my life. I am physically fit, cycle, swim and play a lot of tennis. I ran competitively previously. When I decided to get back into running I checked into local race results and saw that there weren’t many 75-80 runners. 60 plus runners seemed to be running in the low to mid 30’s Not having much to go on I decided to set a goal of 36 minutes. Is there any data on 75-80 male or female runners and what is a competitive time?