The average half marathon time in the US is 2:14, the median of 6,076,681 finishes at 5,546 races from 2022 to 2025. Men's median was 2:04 and women's was 2:22; the mean for everyone was 2:20.
All of it comes from official finisher results in the HalfRuns database. Methodology is at the bottom.
Why the median, not the mean
The mean (2:20) runs about six minutes slower than the median because the slow end of the field stretches further than the fast end. A 3:45 finish pulls the mean up more than a 1:30 finish pulls it down.
The median is the middle finisher: half the field was faster, half slower. Run 2:14 and you finished ahead of roughly half of everyone who ran a half. We use the median for the rest of this post.
Average half marathon time by gender
| Median | Mean | Finishes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everyone | 2:14 | 2:20 | 6,076,681 |
| Men | 2:04 | 2:10 | 2,823,474 |
| Women | 2:22 | 2:28 | 3,216,408 |
Women were 53% of finishers with a recorded gender (3,216,408 of 6,039,882).
Average half marathon time by age and gender
Median finish time by age group, plus the time it took to make the top 25% of that group.
| Age | Women median | Women top 25% | Men median | Men top 25% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10-19 | 2:15 | 1:59 | 1:57 | 1:41 |
| 20-29 | 2:16 | 2:01 | 1:59 | 1:45 |
| 30-39 | 2:20 | 2:02 | 2:01 | 1:46 |
| 40-49 | 2:24 | 2:06 | 2:04 | 1:49 |
| 50-59 | 2:33 | 2:12 | 2:10 | 1:54 |
| 60-69 | 2:44 | 2:21 | 2:19 | 2:01 |
| 70-79 | 3:07 | 2:42 | 2:39 | 2:15 |
| 80-89 | 3:28 | 3:02 | 3:11 | 2:47 |
The medians barely move through the 30s and 40s. Men go from 1:59 in their 20s to 2:04 in their 40s; women go from 2:16 to 2:24.
The gaps widen after 50. From the 40s to the 60s, the women's median rises 20 minutes (2:24 to 2:44) and the men's 15 (2:04 to 2:19). The 70s add another 23 minutes for women and 20 for men.
Men under 20 have the fastest median of any group, 1:57. Teenagers who enter a half are a self-selected group, so don't read that as typical for the age.
These are different people at each age, not the same runners followed over time. The 80-89 rows are small (1,092 women, 2,689 men), so treat them as rough.
What is a good half marathon time?
Here is the full spread for 2022 to 2025. The 10th percentile is the time that 10% of the field beat.
| Percentile | Everyone | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th (top 10%) | 1:43 | 1:36 | 1:52 |
| 25th (top 25%) | 1:56 | 1:48 | 2:04 |
| 50th (median) | 2:14 | 2:04 | 2:22 |
| 75th | 2:38 | 2:25 | 2:46 |
| 90th | 3:05 | 2:51 | 3:14 |
Share of finishers under common goal times:
| Goal | Finishers under it |
|---|---|
| 1:30 | 3.2% |
| 1:45 | 12.3% |
| 2:00 | 31.3% |
| 2:30 | 68.6% |
| 3:00 | 88.1% |
A sub-2:00 puts you ahead of about 7 in 10 finishers. A sub-1:30 is about 1 in 31.
To set your own bar, use your row in the age table. The median is a fair target for most trained runners. The top-25% column is a reasonable stretch goal after a year or two of steady training. About 1 in 8 finishers took 3:00 or longer.
Pace per mile for common goal times
A half marathon is 13.1094 miles (21.0975 km). Divide your goal time by that distance to get the pace you need.
| Goal time | Pace per mile | Pace per km |
|---|---|---|
| 1:30 | 6:52 | 4:16 |
| 1:45 | 8:01 | 4:59 |
| 1:50 | 8:23 | 5:13 |
| 2:00 | 9:09 | 5:41 |
| 2:14 (median) | 10:13 | 6:21 |
| 2:30 | 11:27 | 7:07 |
| 2:45 | 12:35 | 7:49 |
| 3:00 | 13:44 | 8:32 |
Your watch will probably measure the course a little long, because nobody runs the tangents perfectly. If it shows 9:09 per mile at the finish, your official time will be a bit over 2:00. Run a few seconds per mile faster than the chart if you want a specific number.
How the course and weather affect your time
Hills add time and a flat course lets you hold one pace; a net-downhill course can be faster but is hard on the quads. Warm, humid mornings slow nearly everyone, so a cool spring or fall race is a better bet for a PR than a summer race in the South. More on this in What Makes the Fastest Half Marathon Courses.
For a fair comparison, check past results from the race you plan to run. Race pages on HalfRuns with results show how that field finished, so you can see whether it runs fast or slow. Search any race on the results page.
Is the average getting slower?
Over the long run, yes. The median was 2:01 in 2000 and 2:15 in 2019. It has held about level since: 2:14 in 2022 and 2:13 in 2025.
The field grew a lot over the same period. Our database has 118,003 finishes from 2000 and 1,715,019 from 2019. This data can't say why the median slowed, but a much larger field likely includes more people running to finish rather than to race. Older years also have fewer digitized results, so treat the early numbers as rough.
How we got these numbers
Source: official finisher results in the HalfRuns database, from Athlinks, RunSignup and ten other timing and results platforms.
Scope: every finish that passed the filters below, 6,076,681 in total, at 5,546 races (12,432 race editions) from 2022 through 2025. No sampling.
Filters:
- Half marathon results only, as labeled when the results were imported.
- Finish times from 55:00 to 5:00:00, which drops timing errors and extreme outliers.
- When two sources had the same race and year, we kept one copy so no finisher counts twice.
- DNFs and results without a time are excluded.
Coverage: gender is known for 99.4% of finishes and age for 97.5%. The age table uses the 97.3% with both, ages 10 to 89.
Caveats:
- We used the chip time field. Some races publish only a gun time, which runs slower for people who started further back.
- These are people who signed up for a half and finished it, a fitter group than the general population. "Average for a half marathon finisher" is not "average for a 40-year-old."
- Times are rounded to the nearest minute.
FAQ
What is the average half marathon time for a beginner? We can't tell which finishers were running their first half. The overall median is 2:14 (2:04 for men, 2:22 for women), and first-timers likely run slower than that on average. About 31% of all finishers took longer than 2:30.
Is 2 hours a good half marathon time? Yes. Only 31.3% of finishers from 2022 to 2025 broke 2:00. For men, 2:00 is just under the median of 2:04. For women, it beats the top-25% mark of 2:04.
What is the average half marathon time for a 40-year-old? For runners aged 40 to 49, the median was 2:04 for men and 2:24 for women. The top 25% of that age group ran 1:49 or faster for men and 2:06 or faster for women.
Find a half marathon near you, or look up your past results to see where you rank.