Average Half Marathon Time by Age and Gender

How these half marathon times by age are worked out

Every time in the table comes from the WMA/USATF 2025 road age-grading tables, approved by the USATF Masters Long Distance Running Council in January 2025. An age grade compares a finish time with the standard for that age and sex, as a percentage: 100% matches the standard, and each lower grade is slower. For the half marathon, the tables' 100% mark, the open-class standard, is 57:31 for men and 1:02:52 for women.

The time at a grade is the age standard divided by the grade, so every 60% time is that age's standard divided by 60%. These are targets by age, not averages of real finishers. To grade a past race against the same tables, use the age-grade calculator.

What's a good half marathon time?

A good half marathon time beats the 2024 US median of about 2:13:00 (Brian Rock, Outside Run), and a good target for your age is a 60% age-graded time, the level the RunReps Age-Grade Calculator calls club level: at 35, 1:36:33 for men and 1:46:23 for women.

Read the table's columns as tiers: 60% is club level, 70% regional class and 80% national class, while 90% and above is world class. At the elite end, the tables' 100% mark is 57:31 for men and 1:02:52 for women, the open-class standard that every age standard is scaled from.

Is a 2 hour half marathon good?

A 2:00:00 half marathon is a good time: it beats the 2024 US median of about 2:13:00 from Brian Rock at Outside Run, and it is faster than the 2:03:28 median for US men.

On the WMA 2025 tables, 2:00:00 is a 48.3% age grade for a man of 35, just under a 50% age grade, and 53.2% for a woman of 35. The same time grades higher with age: 62.3% for a man of 65 and 63.6% for a woman of 55, both club level.

What is the average half marathon time for a woman?

The average half marathon time for a woman in the US, measured as the median, was 2:21:42 in 2024, against 2:03:28 for men, across about 1 million US results analysed by Brian Rock for Outside Run.

Age grading sets a separate women's standard, so a woman's grade compares her with women of the same age. For a woman of 45, a 60% age-graded time, club level, is 1:53:28; at 65 it is 2:25:31.

A 1:45:00 finish is a 60.8% age grade for a woman of 35 and 72.7% for a woman of 55, regional class.

What's a good half marathon time for my age?

A good half marathon time for your age is a 60% age-graded time, the level the RunReps Age-Grade Calculator calls club level, which on the WMA 2025 tables is 1:43:39 for a man of 45 and 2:07:14 for a woman of 55.

The targets slow with age: a man's 60% time moves from 1:35:52 at 30 to 1:58:37 at 60, and a woman's from 1:45:00 at 30 to 2:15:45 at 60. In pace terms, the 60% target for a man of 45 is 4:55 min/km (7:54 min/mile), and the half marathon pace chart turns any finish time into a pace.

These are age-graded targets, not average half marathon times by age. For the full distance, the same tables give marathon times by age.

What is a realistic time for a half marathon?

A realistic time for a half marathon, especially a first one, is a finish near the 2024 US median of about 2:13:00 (Brian Rock, Outside Run), the time that splits US finishers into two equal halves.

That median mixes beginners with experienced runners, so a beginner's own realistic target is better set from a recent shorter race in the race time predictor.

The running plan generator then builds a half marathon plan around that goal.

Why do average half marathon times disagree?

Average half marathon times disagree because sources count different fields: the US figure of about 2:13:00 is the median of about 1 million US results from 2024 (Brian Rock, Outside Run), while figures from other years or countries describe other fields.

A median is the time half the field beats, so it sits nearer the middle finisher, while a long tail of slower runners pulls an average later. Check which one a figure is before you compare it with your own time.

The table's times are a third kind of number: age-graded targets set by the WMA 2025 tables, not results. For a shorter race, compare the average 10K time.