Race Pace Card
Fill in your target splits before the event and carry it with you. Deciding your pace at the start line is deciding it too late.
BFCBrilliance · bfcbrilliance.com/tools/running-pace-calculator
The plan
- Event
- Date
- Distance
- Target time
- Target pace / mile
- Target pace / km
- Speed (mph)
- Actual finish
Splits — write the target, fill in the actual on the day
| Mile / km | Target split | Cumulative | Actual | Ahead / behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The arithmetic
- Pace
- total time / distance
- Speed
- distance / total time
- 1 mile
- 1.609344 km (exact)
- 5K
- 3.11 miles
- 10K
- 6.21 miles
- Half marathon
- 21.0975 km exactly = 13.1094 miles
- Marathon
- 42.195 km exactly = 26.2188 miles
- This figure is
- an AVERAGE, not any single mile
Pacing the day
- Target pace decided BEFORE the start, not on the line
- First mile deliberately slower than target - it will feel too easy
- Watch checked at each marker, not every thirty seconds
- A plan for going through halfway on time rather than ahead
- Hills paced by EFFORT, not by holding the number
- Splits written down small enough to read while moving
- A slower fallback target for heat, wind or a bad day
- Card kept afterwards - it is the only honest record of what happened
Even beats fast-then-fade
The same average pace can come from running evenly or from going out hard and hanging on, and they do not finish in the same time - the fade almost always costs more than the fast start gained. If the first mile feels comfortable and slightly boring, you have probably got it right.
Not medical advice
This is arithmetic on numbers you enter - it makes no assessment of your fitness and predicts nothing. Training load, injury and any decision about whether to run at all are matters for you and a qualified professional, particularly if you are new to running, returning from injury, pregnant, or managing a heart, lung or joint condition.