4-hour marathon pace

A 4-hour marathon is 9:09 per mile, or 5:41 per kilometre, held for 26.2 miles (42.195 km). On even pace you pass halfway at 2:00:00 and 20 miles at 3:03:05. To finish under 4:00, run 9:08 per mile, which finishes in 3:59:28.

How the numbers are worked out

• 4:00:00 is 14,400 seconds.
• Per mile: 14,400 ÷ 26.2188 miles = 549.2 s = 9:09.
• Per kilometre: 14,400 ÷ 42.195 km = 341.3 s = 5:41.
• At halfway: 14,400 × 21.0975 ÷ 42.195 = 7,200.0 s = 2:00:00.
• At 20 miles: 14,400 × 20 ÷ 26.2188 = 10,984.5 s = 3:03:05.
• At 40 km: 14,400 × 40 ÷ 42.195 = 13,650.9 s = 3:47:31.
• Speed: 26.2188 miles ÷ 4 h = 6.55 mph (10.55 km/h).

Every split on this page uses one formula: goal seconds × distance covered ÷ race distance, rounded to the nearest second. A mile is 1.609344 km, so the marathon is 26.2188 miles. The marathon pace chart applies the same formula to every realistic finish time, and how long is a marathon explains where the odd distance comes from.

RunRepeat's finish-time percentiles (35M results across 28,000+ races, as printed on our average marathon time page) place 4:00:00 between the fastest 10% (3:31:46) and the fastest 30% (4:02:56) of all finishers. For men it sits between the fastest 30% (3:53:07) and the median (4:14:29); for women, between the fastest 10% (3:49:22) and the fastest 30% (4:20:24).

Read the other way: a sub-4 beats more than 70% of all finishers in that data, and more than half of men.

4:00:00 is also the Boston Marathon qualifying standard for women and non-binary athletes aged 55 to 59, for both the 2027 and 2028 races. Meeting it is not enough on its own: the 2027 cut-off was 5:17, so those runners needed 3:54:43 or faster to be accepted. Details on our Boston qualifying times page.

Check the goal before you train for it. Riegel's formula, T2 = T1 × (D2 ÷ D1)^1.06 (Riegel, American Scientist 69(3), 1981), says 4:00:00 for the marathon is worth:

• Half marathon: 14,400 × (21.0975 ÷ 42.195)^1.06 = 6,907 s = 1:55:07.
• 10K: 14,400 × (10 ÷ 42.195)^1.06 = 3,130 s = 52:10.

Riegel is optimistic when it predicts a marathon from a shorter race, because it assumes marathon-specific endurance. Treat a recent half marathon near 1:55 as the minimum evidence for sub-4, not proof. Run your own recent result through the race time predictor, and use the VDOT calculator to turn it into training paces.

Then pick a plan. The intermediate level fits a sub-4 attempt: it assumes a marathon behind you and a target time in mind. The free 16-week intermediate marathon plan is 4 runs a week, peaking at 68 km with a 32 km long run, with cutback weeks and a taper. Put goal-pace miles inside the later long runs, so 9:09 per mile feels familiar before race day.

Either side of it, 3:45 marathon pace is 8:35 per mile and 4:30 marathon pace is 10:18.