Find the even pace for your goal time, then print a split sheet to carry with you.
Estimate only, not a training plan.
Even pacing is easier to hold when the numbers are in front of you instead of in your head at mile 20. The table below fills in as soon as you set a goal time; print it and fold it into a pocket, or screenshot it to your watch.
| Mile | Cumulative time |
|---|---|
| Set a goal time above | |
| Km | Cumulative time |
|---|---|
| Set a goal time above | |
The math behind an even split is simple: your body has a limited store of readily usable fuel, and spending it in the first three miles doesn't make it available again in the last three. Runners who go out five or ten seconds per mile faster than goal pace tend to lose far more than that on the back half once the deficit catches up. A slightly negative split, a few seconds per mile faster in the second half, is usually the fastest strategy on paper and the most forgiving one in practice.
Course terrain matters too. A goal pace built on a flat time trial will not hold on a hilly out-and-back; expect to give back a few seconds per mile on the climbs and gain some back, though usually not all of it, on the descents. If the race has a wave start, your official chip time already accounts for the gap between the gun and your actual start, so the pace above still applies from your own starting line, not the front of the field.
Base it on a recent race result or a hard long run, not a number you'd like to hit. Setting a goal far outside your current fitness usually ends in a walk to the finish.
Usually not. Banking early minutes almost always costs more time later, once fatigue and heat catch up, than it saves at the start.
It's a checkpoint. If you're within a minute or two of the even-split halfway time shown above, you're on pace. If you're well ahead of it, you probably went out too fast.
Yes. Use the print button above the split table, or your browser's print function; the page is formatted to print just the splits, not the navigation or ads.