Distance Converter
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Converting Running Distances
Runners encounter a range of distance units when training or racing, and there's sometimes conflict. In part due to different personal preferences, but also due to standard race distances. Most track events and some road events use metric measures (e.g. 400 meters and 10km), whereas other road events use imperial measures (e.g., the mile, the half marathon, and the marathon).
Additionally, many runners that train on a track find it easiest to train use subdivisions of 400 meters, since that is the length of an outdoor track. Such runners also often consider reps of 100 meters and 200 meters.
Being able to quickly convert between imperial and metric distances make the mix of measures more manageable when planning training or racing.
Fill in any field and all the other fields will update. The conversion is automatic and instant.
You can also generate a summary of distances which, in addition to summarising the values on the page, also shows other less-common measures of distance and some useful and not-so-useful distance comparisons.
How Distances are Converted
Meters, kilometers, centimeters, and millimeters
Converting between meters and kilometers
One kilometer is 1,000 meters:
kilometers = meters ÷ 1,000
Converting between meters and centimeters
One meter is 100 centimeters:
centimeters = meters × 100
Converting between meters and millimeters
One meter is 1,000 millimeters:
millimeters = meters × 1,000
Converting meters to yards
One meter is 1.09361 yards, so to convert from meters to yards we divide by 1.09361
yards = meters ÷ 1.09361
The marathon and the half marathon
A marathon is 42,194.988 meters and a half marathon is 21,097.494 meters.
Miles
Converting between miles and kilometers
One mile is 1,609.344 meters, and one kilometer is 1,000 meters, so to convert from miles to kilometers we multiply by 1.609344:
kilometers = miles × 1.609344
To convert from kilometers to miles we divide by this 1.609344:
miles = kilometers ÷ 1.609344
Converting between miles and meters is achieved by replacing 1.609344 above with 1,609.344
Converting between miles and yards
One mile is equal to 1,760 yards, so to convert from miles to yards we multiply by 1,760:
yards = miles × 1,760
To convert from yards to miles we divide by 1,760:
miles = yards ÷ 1,760
Converting between miles and 5k
5k is equal to 3.11 miles, so to convert from miles to multiples of 5k we divide by 3.11:
multiples 5k = miles ÷ 3.11
To convert miles to multiples of 5k to miles we multiply by 3.11:
miles = multiples of 5k × 3.11
Converting between miles and 10k
10k is equal to 6.22 miles, so to convert from miles to multiples of 10k we divide by 6.22:
multiples of 10k = miles ÷ 3.22
To convert miles to multiples of 10k to miles we multiply by 6.22:
miles = multiples of 10k × 6.22
Converting between miles and half marathon
A half marathon is equal to 13.11 miles, so to convert from miles to multiples of half marathons we divide by 13.11:
multiples of half marathons = miles ÷ 13.11
To convert miles to multiples of half marathons to miles we multiply by 13.11:
miles = multiples of half marathons × 13.11
Converting between miles and the marathon
A marathon is equal to 26.22 miles, so to convert from miles to multiples of marathons we divide by 26.22:
multiples of marathons = miles ÷ 26.22
To convert miles to multiples of marathons to miles we multiply by 26.22:
miles = multiples of marathons × 26.22
Yards, feet, inches, and thous
Converting meters to yards
One yard is 0.9144 meters, so to convert from meters to yards we divide by 0.9144
yards = meters ÷ 0.9144
Converting between yards and feet
One yard is three feet:
yards = feet × 3
Converting between feet and inches
One foot is 12 inches:
feet = inches × 12:
Converting between inches and thous
One inch is 1/1000 of an inch:
thous = inches ÷ 1000
The marathon and the half marathon
A marathon is 46,145 yards, and a half marathon is 23,072.5 yards
Laps of track
A lap of a standard outdoor running track is 400 meters. To convert between miles and laps of the running track (or other splits in meters) we first convert miles to meters (see above) and then divide by the lap/split distance in meters.
For example, to convert miles to 400 meters:
multiples of 400 meters = miles × 1,609.344 / 400
Or, if you prefer, simply multiply by 4.02336 (which is 1,609.344/400):
multiples of 400 meters = miles × 4.02336
Surveying
Chains, rods, and links are popular with surveyors in the USA
Gunter's chain
Gunter's chain is equal to 66 feet, or 22 yards.
Rods
A rod is equal to a quarter of a chain: it's 16.5 feet, or 5.5 yards.
Links
25 links make a rod, and 100 links make a chain.
Horses
Furlongs
A furlong is equal to 1/8 of a mile. It's commonly used in horse racing.
Horse lengths
A horse length is equal to (about) eight feet. It's the approximate length of a horse from head to tail and is typically used to describe distances between horses in horse racing.
Astronomical
Earth radius
The Earth's radius at the equator is 6,378.137 kilometers (3,963.19 miles).
Lunar distance
The moon is, on average, 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles) away from the Earth.
Astronomical Units
An astronomical unit (au) is the approximate average distance from the Earth to the Sun, and has a strict definition of 149,597,870,700 meters (163,602,221,049 yards).
Light years
A light year is the distance light travels in a year. That's a distance of 9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometers (a bit less than 5.88 trillion miles).
Parsecs
A parsec is equal to 3.26 light years. The word "parsec" is a combination of "parallax" and "arcsecond". An arcsecond is 1/3600 of a degree. A parsec is the distance a star would have to be from the Earth in order to move through one arcsecond in the sky when it is viewed from the position of the earth compared to the position of the sun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble%27s_law#Hubble_lengthHubble length
A Hubble length is equal to 14.4 billion light years.
Tiny
Angstroms
The angstrom is equal to one ten-billionth of a meter, or 10-10 meters. It's a now-obsolete unit of measure that was previously used for measuring very small items.
Planck lengths
The Planck length make angstroms look massive. It is the scale of lengths where quantum gravity becomes relevant. That's about 10-35 meters
Popular
Bananas
who knows how big the average banana is? We've gone with 20 centimeters (7.9 inches).
American football fields
An American football field is 120 yards (109.73 meters
Double-decker bus
There are lots of different types of double-decker buses, but we've gone with the length of the AEC Routemaster class RM, which is 27.5 feet (8.38 meters).