Pace reference

3:00 per km pace

3:00 min/km is genuinely elite territory — the pointy end of national-class racing. Here’s what it does over every distance, in plain maths — then the harder question of when to run it.

3:00 per km 12.4mph
Speed
20.0 km/h
Per mile
4:50
Treadmill
12.4 / 20.0
Even splits at 3:00 /km
1 km3:00
2 kms6:00
3 kms9:00
4 kms12:00
5 kms15:00
6 kms18:00
7 kms21:00
8 kms24:00
9 kms27:00
10 kms30:00

Race times at 3:00 per km

Every finish below assumes you hold 3:00 /km evenly the whole way — a useful yardstick, not a prediction. Real races fade; the pace calculator does the Riegel-adjusted version from a race you’ve actually run.

DistanceFinish timePace /mi
Mile 4:50 4:50
5K 15:00 4:50
10K 30:00 4:50
15K 45:00 4:50
Half marathon 1:03:18 4:50
Marathon 2:06:35 4:50

Is 3:00 per km a good pace?

Honestly, the number matters less than the day it lands on. 3:00 /km is genuinely elite territory — the pointy end of national-class racing. If it’s your goal-race pace, most of your training should happen slower than this — the fastest way to a faster race is a pile of easy kilometres and a handful of hard ones, run on the right days. If it already feels easy, it’s a fine cruising pace to build your base on.

A pace chart can tell you the maths. It can’t tell you whether today is a day to hit it — that depends on your sleep, your legs, and the runs already behind you. That gap is exactly what Liftrun was built to close.

Nearby paces