First Half Marathon What is the average half marathon time?

What is the average half marathon time?

At the 2017 NYC Half, actress Ellie Kemper finished in 1:54:05, model Candice Huffine in 2:25:06, and competitive eater Crazy Legs Conti in 3:11:56, Canadian Running reported. Three famous people, one race, and a spread of more than an hour.

That spread is what real half marathons look like. RunRepeat, which has collected 35 million race results from more than 28,000 races, puts the middle finisher (the median, which is fairer than the average here because a few very fast or very slow times can skew an average) at 2:14:59. Running USA's report on more than 2 million American finishers in 2014 landed in the same neighborhood.

Typical (median) times: half of finishers were faster, half slower.

So Candice Huffine ran almost exactly the women's middle time, and Crazy Legs Conti had plenty of company behind it. You won't be alone back there. You'll be in the crowd.

Average half marathon time by age

Chow Yun-fat, the Hong Kong action star, ran his first half marathon in 2023 at age 68 and finished in 2 hours, 27 minutes, and 56 seconds. Earlier, asked whether he'd ever run a half or a full marathon, he'd answered: "Maybe a few years later when I'm older, right now I'm still young."

He had a point. The half marathon isn't a young person's race. In Running USA's 2014 report, the average finisher was 39 for men and 36 for women, and 42 percent of everyone who finished was 40 or older.

You'll find plenty of "average time by age" charts online, but the ones I checked are estimates built from a curve or from people typing their own times into a calculator, not counts of real race results, so I'm not going to give you one. Age does slow you down, gradually, but often less than people fear: Chow Yun-fat's first half at 68 came in about 13 minutes behind the overall middle finisher, with men and women of every age counted together.

What you can control at any age is the training and the food that backs it up. Running on too little food holds back what your training builds, and that's as true at 25 as at 65. If you want to compare across ages, look up an "age-graded" calculator, which adjusts your time for age and sex, so a 60-year-old and a 30-year-old can see how they stack up fairly.

What’s a good half marathon time for a beginner?

In November 2018, Will Smith ran the Havana half marathon to tick off a bucket-list item. He said he'd signed up on three weeks' notice, which I don't recommend, and finished in 2:29:04. That's slower than half the men in the RunRepeat numbers, and nobody remembers it as anything but a finish.

For a first half, a good time is the one you finish healthy and want to repeat. If you're new, finishing behind the middle is normal: by definition, half of all finishers do. A first race is a baseline, not a verdict. Save the time goal for your second half, when you'll have a real number to beat.

If you do have a number in mind, this is what it means per mile and per kilometer.

Even pace over 13.1 miles (21.1 km). Real races run a little long, because few people run the exact shortest line.

Slower times also mean longer training runs, and that's where food matters most. Your longest runs may take 2 hours or more, and those days need more food, not less: a real breakfast, carbs and protein soon after, and full meals all day. (In the race, a gel or two helps on a morning that long.)

Is there a time limit for a half marathon?

Harriette Thompson was 75 when a woman at her church, collecting donations for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, said she was going to walk a marathon. Thompson said she could walk one, too, and at 76 she ran her first. In June 2017, at 94, she finished the Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Half Marathon in 3 hours, 42 minutes, and 56 seconds, with two of her sons and her granddaughter running around her. She became the oldest woman ever to finish a half. "I feel just like I did when I was 16, but I just can't move as fast," she said.

Her pace works out to 17 minutes a mile. That would fit inside the 4-hour limit at Houston or Indianapolis. It wouldn't fit at a race that closes at 3½ hours. Same runner, same morning, different rules, which is why the time limit is the one number to look up before you sign up.

Most races have one, because roads have to reopen. A few real examples:

Rules change. Always check your own race’s current page.

To check yours, open the race website and look in the FAQ or the participant guide for "time limit," "course time limit," or "pace requirement." Then read the fine print, because races count it differently. When does the clock start? Indy's 18-minute pace starts when the last runner crosses the start line, so starting near the back buys you time. Are there checkpoints? Houston has a cutoff at mile 7.6 as well as at the finish, and runDisney's pace cyclists wave a red flag at each mile marker if you're behind. What if you fall behind? Usually you're offered a ride on a sweep bus or van, which is a disappointment, not a disaster.

If your race closes at 3½ hours and your training points to 3:45, you have good choices: train with run-walk, pick a race with a 4-hour limit, or give yourself more weeks. Limits do change, too: Monumental widened its limit to 16 minutes a mile in 2023.

Run-walk is a real way to finish

In 1974, Jeff Galloway, two years after running the 10,000 meters at the Munich Olympics, agreed to teach a beginners' running class through Florida State University. Most of his students hadn't run in years, so he had them alternate walking with one-minute jogs, and he adjusted the walk breaks so nobody was worn out, even at the end. "Walk breaks kept the groups together," he said. Every one of them finished a 5K or 10K.

That class became the run-walk-run method, and it has carried runners to half marathon finish lines for decades since. It isn't a lesser way to race. In a randomized trial of 42 recreational marathoners, runners who took planned walk breaks finished in about the same time as runners who ran the whole way, and reported less muscle pain and fatigue afterward.

Run-walk works best when it's planned from the start, not saved for the moment you're exhausted. Galloway's plans set your ratio of running to walking from your pace, so a slower runner walks more often. Walk briskly, keep the breaks short, and take them early, while you still feel good. That's also a natural moment to sip water.

Running coach Bobby McGee, remembering Galloway, pointed out that after a race people compare finish times. "Nobody asks them if they ran the whole thing."

How to find your half marathon pace from your own runs

When Martinus Evans first said he'd run a marathon, his doctor didn't take him seriously. "I remember telling this doctor, 'I'm going to run a marathon,' and he laughed at me," he told WPR. He's since run eight, and his Slow AF Run Club has more than 20,000 members. His advice to new runners is the opposite of a pep talk: "curb your enthusiasm when it comes to running." He starts beginners with 15 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking.

That's the secret to pacing a first half, too. Your best pace isn't a number from a chart. It's the one your own runs say you can hold.

Your easy runs come first. Most of your running should be easy, slow enough to talk, and those paces tell you where you're starting. Your long runs tell you what you can hold for an hour or two. As the weeks go by, both shift: the same easy pace starts to come with a lower heart rate, usually within about 8 weeks, and an Apple Watch is accurate enough to show it. Put your pace history and heart rate together and you get a reasonable estimate of what you can race, better than any guess.

If you like a test, Galloway had one: the "Magic Mile." Every couple of weeks, after a warm-up, run one mile about as hard as you can at an even pace, then multiply your time by 1.2 for a rough half marathon pace per mile, Canadian Running explains. A 10-minute mile points to about 12:00 a mile, or a finish near 2:37.

Food shows up in your pace record, too. Eat too little through the training weeks and your training builds less and your runs slow down. The everyday signs are easy to miss: always tired, legs never fresh, sleeping badly, cranky, sick more often, and more likely to get a bone stress injury. Eat more on long-run and hard days, normally on rest days, with protein at every meal. Then the pace you see is one you can trust.

On race day, start slower than that pace for the first couple of miles. Everyone around you will be fresh and excited. Curb your enthusiasm, as Evans says, and you'll pass people in the last 3 miles instead of the other way around.

You are not too slow

The median is just a middle. The people behind it are first-timers, grandparents, and run-walkers, all covering the same 13.1 miles you are.

Train for the finish, check the time limit, feed your training days, and let your own runs tell you your pace. "The goal of this run club is to inspire 1 million people to start running in the body that they have right now," Martinus Evans said. The body you have right now can do this.

And when you cross the line, take a page from Harriette Thompson. Asked how she'd celebrate her record half at 94, she said, "I'm deciding whether I want scotch or bourbon."