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RW's Race Time Predictor

Predict your race result - just enter a recent time from another distance

This calculator lets you input an actual race time to see what you should be capable of at another distance. It is adjusted for distance (ie its 10K prediction isn't just double your 5K time), but there are three caveats:

  1. It assumes you've done appropriate training for the distance. Doing a 22-minute 5K today doesn't mean you can do a sub-4 marathon tomorrow. Obvious, really.
  2. It assumes you don't have a natural significant bias towards either speed or endurance. Some people, no matter how much training they do, will always over-achieve at one end of the scale.
  3. The calculations become less accurate for times under three and a half minutes and over four hours.
Recent race length (you can use a decimal point, eg. 26.2):
My time (hours:minutes:seconds): : :
Please estimate my time for:
Predicted time (hours:minutes:seconds): : :

The formula was originally devised by Pete Riegel, a research engineer and marathoner, and published in Runner's World, most recently by Owen Anderson in 1997. It has been widely used since then. The formula is T2 = T1 x (D2/D1)1.06 where T1 is the given time, D1 is the given distance, D2 is the distance to predict a time for, and T2 is the calculated time for D2.


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Discuss this article, 1 of 245 messages, read more:
Sean Fishpool 
Posted: 23/11/04 13:39:32 32
Hello all

we'd love to know whether this calculator (click the link above) matches your real-life race times.

It's based on a well-established formula - what do you think?

My first reaction was that its predictions were too fast, but I think that was because
a) I have a bit more speed than endurance; and
b) my instinct was to try to predict times at the extreme ends of the distance spectrum (eg marathon time from 5K time)

Sean, RW
Read more...
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