Average 3K Time by Age and Gender

How these 3K times are worked out

These 3K times come from the WMA/USATF 2025 road age-grading tables, approved by the USATF Masters Long Distance Running Council in January 2025. A percentage grade measures your time against the standard for your age and sex: 100% matches it, and 60% means you are running at 60% of its speed. The time at any grade is the age standard divided by the grade.

For 3K, the standard is interpolated between the tables' 1 mile and 5 km standards. That gives a 100% mark of 7:24 for men and 8:07 for women, within 1% of WMA's track 3000 m standard. Every figure is a target by age, not an average of real finishers. The same tables power the age-grade calculator, which grades 5K to marathon results.

What's a good time for a 3K?

A good time for a 3K is 12:20 for men and 13:32 for women aged 25: a 60% age-graded time, the level the RunReps Age-Grade Calculator calls club level on the WMA 2025 road tables.

Each grade has a name: 60% is club level, 70% regional class, 80% national class and 90% world class. The 50% column has no name of its own. At the very top, the tables' 100% mark is 7:24 for men and 8:07 for women, close to the world records.

How many minutes is a 3K run?

At Strava's 2024 median training pace of 6:22 min/km, a 3K run takes about 19:06. As a race, the 60% club-level grade on the WMA 2025 tables is 13:38 for a man of 45 and 14:39 for a woman of 45, a pace of 4:33 min/km and 4:53 min/km.

At 65, club level is 16:07 for men and 18:31 for women, or 5:22 min/km and 6:10 min/km. The pace calculator works out the pace for any other 3K target.

What is a good 3K time for a woman?

A good 3K time for a woman is 13:32 at 25, 14:05 at 40 and 16:21 at 55: the 60% age-graded times the RunReps Age-Grade Calculator calls club level on the WMA 2025 tables.

Regional class, at 70%, is 11:36 at 25, 12:04 at 40 and 14:00 at 55. The men's club-level times at those ages are 12:20, 13:08 and 14:46.

Why is there no published average 3K time?

There is no published average 3K time because no large study of race results reports one: the big result studies RunReps draws on cover the 5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon and mile, but not the 3K.

Without one, the WMA 2025 age-graded times are the most useful yardstick: targets by age and sex, not a picture of who turns up on the day.

For a real crowd to compare with, the average 5K time is the nearest distance with large published studies.

Is 3K in 20 minutes good?

A 3K in 20 minutes is a steady finish rather than a fast one: on the WMA 2025 tables it grades 37.0% for a man of 25 and 40.6% for a woman of 25, below a 50% age grade.

Age changes the picture. The same 20:00 is 55.5% for a woman of 65 and 64.0%, club level, for a woman of 75. If you are building up, the running plan generator sets out the next step.