Pace is the time taken to cover a unit of distance — the inverse of speed. While speed is expressed as distance per unit time (km/h, mph), pace is time per unit distance (min/km, min/mile). Runners, cyclists, and race directors commonly use pace as it directly answers "how long will this take?" rather than "how fast am I going?"
Most of the world uses min/km for road races, while the United States and United Kingdom traditionally use min/mile. Elite marathon runners target sub-3:00/km (under 4:50/mile), while a comfortable recreational jogging pace is around 6:00–7:00/min/km. The kilometre-mile relationship (1 mile = 1.60934 km) means a 5:00/km pace equals approximately 8:03/mile.
| 4:00 min/km | = 6:26 min/mi |
| 5:00 min/km | = 8:03 min/mi |
| 6:00 min/km | = 9:39 min/mi |
| 5:00 min/mi | = 3:06 min/km |
| 8:00 min/mi | = 4:58 min/km |
| 10:00 min/mi | = 6:13 min/km |