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Average Half Marathon Time

See how common each half marathon goal time is, then enter your own time to rank it.

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This average half marathon time page shows the typical half marathon finish time in road races in Switzerland, split by sex and age, and shows where your time sits. Across 343,872 road-race finishers from 1999 to 2019, the median half marathon time was 1:51:05: 1:46:59 for men and 1:59:54 for women. These are finishers of road races in one country, not all runners, and fun runs and races in other countries differ. Start with the goal ladder to see how common each goal time is.

Use the goal ladder and the tool below by entering your sex, age and half marathon time, or leave the time blank to read the figures for your group alone. The page also shows the spread of finish times.

Average half marathon time example

How to use the average half marathon time tool

  1. Read the goal ladder first. It shows 1:30:00, 1:45:00, 2:00:00, 2:15:00 and 2:30:00, with the share of finishers who ran faster than each goal.
  2. Choose Women or Men.
  3. Enter your age, from 10 to 89.
  4. Optionally enter your half marathon finish time.
  5. Read the median and the middle 50 % for your age group. The middle 50 % is the range from the 25th to the 75th percentile finish time.
  6. If you entered a time, read the share of finishers you were faster than.
  7. Read your age-grade percentage, which uses the USATF MLDR / Alan Jones road age-grading tables (2025, CC0 data).
  8. Scroll to the chart and the tables by age band to see how your band compares.

The figures are our own statistics from the open Swiss road-race dataset of Witthöft et al., PLOS ONE 2025 (CC BY 4.0), covering 1999 to 2019 and finishers only. Read them as figures for road-race finishers in one country, not for all runners. Age grades use the USATF MLDR / Alan Jones road age-grading tables (2025). The tool runs in your browser, nothing you enter is uploaded, and it is free.

Change the sex or the age and every figure updates at once. The goal ladder stays on the page, so you can compare a round target with the group figures. The result shows the median first, then the middle 50 %, then your position if you entered a time. The link button copies your exact inputs.

Reading the result well. Compare yourself with your own sex and age band first, because the all-ages median mixes groups that run at very different speeds. Treat one race as one data point: course, weather and the day you had all move a finish time. If you want a target rather than a position, pick a time from the age-grade list and use the race pace calculator to turn it into a pace for each kilometre or mile.

What is the average half marathon time?

The median half marathon time across all finishers is 1:51:05, and the mean is 1:52:23. The middle 50 % ran between 1:40:20 and 2:02:31. The fastest 10 % finished in 1:31:24 or less, and the slowest 10 % took longer than 2:14:40.

What is a good half marathon time?

On this page, good means an age-grade percentage. For a man aged 50, a half marathon in 1:48:12 gives 60 %, 1:32:44 gives 70 %, 1:21:09 gives 80 % and 1:12:08 gives 90 %. On the goal ladder, 70 % of all finishers ran faster than 2:00:00, and 36 % ran faster than 1:45:00.

How do men’s and women’s half marathon times compare?

Across all ages the median is 1:46:59 for men and 1:59:54 for women. In the 30 to 34 band the medians are 1:45:12 for men and 1:59:01 for women. In the 60 to 64 band they are 1:54:54 for men and 2:07:03 for women.

How does the half marathon time change with age?

Men’s medians are 1:43:59 at 20 to 24, 1:45:44 at 40 to 44, 1:48:56 at 50 to 54 and 1:54:54 at 60 to 64. Women’s medians are 1:59:26 at 20 to 24, 1:59:14 at 40 to 44, 2:01:31 at 50 to 54 and 2:07:03 at 60 to 64.

Why the median and not the mean?

A few very slow finishes pull the mean above the median, so the median describes the typical finisher better. Half of the finishers ran faster than the median and half ran slower. The page also shows the 25th and 75th percentile times. Together they give the middle 50 %, the range in which half of all finishers ended up, so you can see how wide “normal” is for your group before you judge your own time.

What these figures can and cannot tell you

The numbers come from finishers of organised road races in one country between 1999 and 2019. They leave out runners who did not finish, runners who never enter races, and any race outside that dataset. A median from this data is a fair picture of road-race finishers in that period, not a rule for every runner in every country. If your time sits below the median for your group, that says nothing about your health or your potential: a position in a table is not a score of how well you trained.

How wide is the spread of half marathon times?

The fastest 10 % of all finishers ran 1:31:24 or less, and the slowest 10 % took longer than 2:14:40, a gap of more than forty-three minutes. For men the marks are 1:29:08 and 2:09:17, and for women they are 1:42:01 and 2:22:08. The wide spread is why the goal ladder helps: it shows how many finishers ran faster than a round goal time, instead of a single average.

How this tool works and where the numbers come from

Medians and percentiles are our own statistics computed from the open Swiss road-race dataset of Witthöft et al. (PLOS ONE 2025, CC BY 4.0): road races in Switzerland from 1999 to 2019, finishers aged 10 to 89, half marathon. They describe finishers in one country, not all runners. The share of finishers faster than your time is interpolated between stored percentiles. Age grade uses the 2025 road tables of Alan Jones / USATF MLDR (CC0).

Sources

Reviewed · Published by RunPacePlan

Frequently asked questions

How fast is a 2 hour half marathon?

A 2:00:00 half marathon is slower than the median: 70 % of all finishers in the dataset ran faster. Among women aged 35 to 39 the share who ran faster is 53 %, and among men aged 35 to 39 it is 82 %.

How long does it take to finish a half marathon?

The median finish is 1:51:05. The middle 50 % of finishers ran between 1:40:20 and 2:02:31, and the slowest 10 % took longer than 2:14:40.

What is a good half marathon time for a woman?

The median for women of all ages is 1:59:54, and for women aged 60 to 64 it is 2:07:03. To find the time that matches a target age grade for your age, use the age grade calculator.

Is the average half marathon time the same for beginners?

The dataset records sex and age for finishers, but not training history, so it cannot give a beginner figure. Use the goal ladder to pick a goal, then check how your time sits against the age bands.

What is a good half marathon pace?

This page gives finish times, not a pace target. To turn a goal time into a pace for race day, use the race pace calculator.

What share of finishers ran faster than 1:45:00?

In this dataset 36 % of all finishers ran faster than 1:45:00. Among men that goal is a little faster than the median of 1:46:59, and among women it is well below the median of 1:59:54, so the share depends strongly on the group you choose.

Do half marathon times slow down quickly with age?

Not quickly. The men’s median is 1:43:59 at 20 to 24 and 1:48:56 at 50 to 54. The women’s median is 1:59:26 at 20 to 24 and 2:01:31 at 50 to 54. The slowdown is larger in the 60 to 64 band, where the medians are 1:54:54 for men and 2:07:03 for women.