What's a Good 5k Time?
The boring answer is that it depends.
What qualifies as a good 5k time depends on so many factors, including your age, gender, training and sporting history, how long you've been running, your goals, and whether you have any physical limitations.
So, rather than present a single figure that represents a "good" 5k, let's consider how you can judge your own performance in context.
Average 5k Times
The average 5k time for women is 35:22, and for men it's 33:11. One could argue that any time faster than this is good. But runners often want a more nuanced answer and wonder whether their time is good for their age, or for somebody that's been running for two months, or for somebody that smoked for 30 years. However, being aware of average times gives you a good idea of how you compare to other runners, and goal times to target. Our Average 5k Race Times page shows you averages (mean and median) broken down by gender, age category, and country.
World Records
If you want to be hard on yourself, you could compare your time to world record performances.
The 5k road world record for women is 13:54, set by Beatrice Chebet in 2025, and the 5,000 meter track world record is 13:58.06, also set by Beatrice Chebet in 2025.
For men, the road record is 12:49, set by Berihu Aregawi in 2021, and the track record is 12:35.36, set by Joshua Cheptegei in 2020.
The parkrun world record for women is 15:13, achieved by by Ciara Mageean at Victoria Park, Belfast, in Dec 2023, and for men it's 13:44, achieved by Nick Griggs in 2024 at Belfast Victoria parkrun. It's worth noting that these are more correctly "fastest parkrun times" or ""world's bests", since events are community timed runs and courses vary wildly (Victoria Park, Belfast is obviously one of the faster courses).
Our world record pace pages for men and women take a closer look at these and other paces.
A Quick Comparison
Use the chart below to compare your performance to world record and average 5k times.
Age Group Records
Race times typically decline with age (although if you're a beginner you will see improvements for many years, regardless of your age). To get a better idea of what is exceptional for your age, see how you compare to age group world record times for 5k.
5k Records by Age Group
parkrun Benchmarks
parkrun publish average times weekly. For example, as of the end of August 2025, the average finish time in the USA was 34:17.
Looking at any set of parkrun results can also give you a good idea of the spread of times for people walking and running 5k. The first finisher is usually around 15–20 minutes and the tail walker usually comes through the finish funnel at around the hour mark.
What's a Good 5k Time for a Beginner?
Surprisingly, there aren't any large scientific studies that have tracked beginner 5k times or improvements. Most research focuses on things such as VO2 max, running economy, or biomechanics.
However, real-world data from mass-participation events such as parkrun suggest that:
- Beginner men tend to finish around 32–35 minutes
- Beginner women tend to finish around 35–42 minutes
Anything faster than this would certainly count as good. But remember that simply completing a 5k is a big achievement in itself.
Age Grading
An age grading is a percentage value that takes into account your age, sex, and race distance. It is a great way to compare different performances and different runners.
The table below is widely used to judge the quality of age-grading performances:
| Percentage | Standard |
|---|---|
| 100% | World record |
| 90%+ | World class |
| 80%+ | National class |
| 70%+ | Regional class |
| 60%+ | Local class |
Our reverse age grading calculator shows you what time you'd need to run to achieve each of these standards.
Club Standards
Many running clubs include a set of standards set according to race distance, age, and gender. The times offer an incentive to runners and awards for achieving the times are common.
For example, Knowsley Harriers has Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Copper levels. As an example, a 35-year-old woman would need to run 17:25 to achieve Platinum standard, 19:36 for Gold, 21:46 for Silver, 23:57 for Bronze, and 26:51 for Copper,
Comparison with Yourself
This is probably the best way to measure your time. When you challenge yourself you're challenging somebody who shares your training history, so there's no need to make adjustments.
Just be wary of challenging yourself too often. It's normal for times to fluctuate week to week. It's more valuable to track your overall trends over time.
Other Distances
If you have a good sense of what qualifies as a good time for another race distance, then you can discover equivalent performances using a race predictor tool. This lets you enter a race time for a particular distance and then shows you what time you'd expect to run in other distances.
Other Performance Measures
There's more to a performance than your time. Our Race Profile tool gives you a wealth of information about your race performance, including comparisons, trivia, scores, splits, averages, metrics, and more.