Average marathon time for women: medians, percentiles and age

The average marathon time for women is about 4 hours 42 minutes. More precisely, the middle woman in RunRepeat's percentile calculator, built from 35 million results across more than 28,000 races over 20 years (published 2017, updated March 2024), finishes in 4:42:09. That's a median, roughly 10:46 per mile, and it means half of women finished faster and half slower.

Below: the full spread of women's marathon times, the pace each one needs, what counts as good at different ages, and how to pick a goal that's yours rather than the crowd's. If you'd rather not do the pace math yourself, a smarter running app can set your training paces from your own running.

This is part of our guide to running for women, which covers training, pacing and racing across distances.

Average marathon time for women: the data

Here's the middle of the field from RunRepeat's page, with the pace each time works out to:

Source: RunRepeat, 50th-percentile times. Paces are our arithmetic.

A note on "average". These are medians: the runner in the exact middle. That's the better number for marathons, where a few very long walking finishes would drag a mean around. Different RunRepeat pages also report different marathon averages because they use different datasets and years, so the figures here come from the one page linked, and nowhere else.

The fastest way to beat a number is to train for a specific one. A women's program you can follow, with running and lifting in the same week, gives a marathon build its foundation: the strength and the base that the long runs sit on.

Women's marathon times by percentile

RunRepeat publishes the whole distribution for women. Read the 10th percentile as "10 in every 100 women finished faster than this":

Source: RunRepeat. Paces are our arithmetic.

Three things worth noticing:

• ›Sub-4 is a genuinely strong time. RunRepeat says a 4-hour marathon makes a woman faster than more than 80% of women in its data. It's 9:09 per mile.
• ›The fastest tenth starts at 3:49:22. That's about 8:45 per mile for 26.2 miles.
• ›An 11-minute mile is a 4:48:24 marathon, a little behind the median. Hold 10:46 per mile and you're right on it.

Average marathon time for women by age

RunRepeat's page doesn't split marathon times by age. Two other sources help, with different strengths.

Medians by age (self-submitted data)

RunBundle publishes median marathon times by age from results submitted by users of its calculators. Here are its women's medians as of its September 2, 2026 update:

Source: RunBundle. Paces are our arithmetic.

These medians are faster than RunRepeat's race-field median because people who use running calculators skew keener than the average race entrant. Use the table for the shape: times change gradually through the 30s and 40s, then slow more from the 50s on.

Boston qualifying standards for women

The age benchmark serious amateurs actually chase is a Boston qualifier. For the 2027 Boston Marathon, the B.A.A.'s women's standards, by age on race day (April 19, 2027), are:

Hitting the standard doesn't get you in automatically: for 2027, the B.A.A. says the qualifier cut-off for acceptance was 5 minutes, 17 seconds. Standards change, so check the current year before you plan a season around one.

Average half marathon time for a woman

Plenty of people searching for marathon averages are really asking about the half. In the same RunRepeat dataset, the women's half marathon median is 2:24:03, about 10:59 per mile. The full breakdown by percentile and age is in the average half marathon time female guide.

That median is why a half marathon time 11 minute mile pace is such a common first goal: 11-minute miles bring you home in about 2:24, right in the middle of the women's field.

A recent half is also the best predictor of your marathon. Race-time calculators can convert it, but expect the marathon prediction to be optimistic unless your long runs have reached 18 to 20 miles.

What's a good marathon time for a woman?

A coaching-practice guide, not a dataset:

For a first marathon, the right goal is to finish feeling as good as possible, running by effort. You have no marathon data on yourself yet.

What makes marathon times faster

• ›Consistent easy volume over months. The marathon is an aerobic event first.
• ›A long run that grows gradually to around 18 to 20 miles.
• ›Some marathon-pace work inside long runs late in the build.
• ›Practiced fueling. The ACSM, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Dietitians of Canada position stand gives 30 to 60 g of carbohydrate per hour for 1 to 2.5 hours of exercise, and up to 90 g per hour beyond about 2.5 to 3 hours (Thomas, Erdman and Burke, 2016). At the women's median of 4:42, you're well into that upper range. Train your gut on long runs.
• ›Strength training, done sensibly. One or two sessions a week, kept away from the long run. A systematic review of distance runners found strength training generally improved running economy by 2–8% compared with running alone. If you want numbers for the gym, a guide to female deadlift average lifts is a sensible yardstick.
• ›Pacing. Most bad marathons are lost in the first 10 miles.

Afterwards, recovery is mostly food, sleep and easy movement for a while. What to eat after marathon day starts with an ordinary meal with carbohydrate and protein, not a supplement stack. If anything hurts beyond normal soreness, see a professional.

Your cycle and race day

You don't get to pick your race date around your cycle, and you probably don't need to. A 2020 meta-analysis found performance might be trivially reduced in the early follicular phase (around your period) compared with other phases, based on mostly low-quality evidence, and recommended a personalized approach. If you're worried, rehearse your kit and fueling on a long run that lands on a similar day.

The rest of the picture

• ›At the short end, the answer to the average time to run 5k women question is a median of 37:28 in RunRepeat's data.
• ›For speed in a single test, our guide to average mile time for women converts all of this into mile pace.
• ›And if you want endurance with a strength twist, Hyrox for women mixes 8 km of running with eight functional stations.

How exrsz handles this

exrsz builds a periodized marathon plan from your goal, race date, schedule, level and equipment, with running and lifting balanced in one plan. It adapts each week to how training actually went and reshuffles missed sessions, so your target paces follow your real fitness instead of a number you picked in January.

FAQ

What is the average marathon time for women?

The median women's marathon in RunRepeat's dataset is 4:42:09, about 10:46 per mile. Half of women in that data finished faster, half slower.

Is a 4-hour marathon good for a woman?

Yes. RunRepeat says a 4-hour marathon makes a woman faster than more than 80% of women in its data.

What is the average half marathon time for a woman?

The women's half marathon median in RunRepeat's data is 2:24:03, almost exactly 11 minutes per mile.

What is a good marathon time for a woman by age?

Boston standards are the usual benchmark: for 2027 they range from 3:25 for women aged 18 to 34 to 4:00 at 55 to 59 and 5:20 at 80 and over (B.A.A.). For most women, beating their own last marathon is the better goal.

What pace is the average women's marathon?

At the median of 4:42:09, about 10:46 per mile or 6:41 per kilometer. Your own goal pace should come from a recent half marathon and your long runs, not from the median.