What is a good/average time for a 3K, 5K and 10K?

I have just joined Runners World community, and as a relatively new runner was curious to know how I faired in terms of timings etc.  I have been running for just two years, I am female, age 56, and started off running on a treadmill in my garage gradually building it up to 5k runs on the road (and four stones lighter as a result).  Tonight I managed to run my first 10K after work in the rain in 58.04 mins, which I am very pleased with.  I too am happy just trying to be better than the 'average person in the street'.  I have a baseline now from which to keep trying to get a bit quicker and better.  The sense of well being and achievement I get from running and coming to the sport relatively late in life,  is everything to me;  I never thought I could feel so alive and vital and I am looking forward to many more years of running ahead.  I do, of course, worry about injury, like everybody else I guess, as I am also a keen fell walker and would not want to jeopardise enjoying this. 

Well done janet that is a great time, i know some younger people who couldnt run that,. i take my hat off to you, Like you i have only been running just over two years and im 48, i have now completed 3 marathons and 3 half marathons, im off to valencia in november to do a full marathon, keep up the good work and you will feel so much better for it, once again Well done.

I know what a good time is for a certain distance for me, just by feel. If it's quicker that I last ran it and I know I gave it everything to get that time and I prepared as well as my I feasibly could, then that's a good time.

I'm still trying to crack a 2h half. That's not a quick time by general standards but, having run three of them in just over 2hrs, I will be over the moon if I manage it, and will consider it a bloody brilliant time. That's not to say I think it would be a particularly difficult thing for many people to do and it's definitely doable for me if I put in the training, just that my goals are to keep improving and get fitter, so any time that reflects that is a good one.

Surely one good tool for deciding what a good time is, is the Age Grading system..  There are several tools out there, but why not look at the Runner's World one.. here

 http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/agegradingcalculator/0,7977,s6-238-277-415-0,00.html

This allows you to input your gender and race distance/times, and it gives that performance a percentage rating...  100%= World Class...  70% Regional Class  60% = Local Class....  with other scores inbetween.

For example, Janet, post #61...  with a 10K time of 00:58:04  for a 56yr old women. That scores 64.6%, which is excellent for someone who's only been running for a short time, and achieved all that weight loss. I think the time would already mark you her out as a pretty decent club runner. 

So to answer the question from the OP - I say that you can input your achieved times for 3K, 5K and 10K - and maybe also some 'target' times, and play around with it, to get a sense of average/good times.

This thread is a mere 7 years old.

But reading back, it's quite funny how many people have ignored that the question of "good/average" time came from a female newbie, and instead have answered their own question, of what's a  good time for a hard training, male club runner between 18-40.

2 entirely different questions.

Thanks Run Wales that's really good to know, and I will have a look at the Age Grading System you suggest. 

Stevie G . wrote (see)

But reading back, it's quite funny how many people have ignored that the question of "good/average" time came from a female newbie, and instead have answered their own question, of what's a  good time for a hard training, male club runner between 18-40.

Being 41 I resent the inference here, Stevie!  

Simply the age of a "senior male" rather than Vet Ratzy.

I should have put 18-39 in fairness.