Age grade calculator
Your age-graded percentage and age-graded time, from the WMA 2020 tables parkrun grades against.
The working
What age grading is for
It puts every runner on one scale. A 62-year-old woman running 24:00 for 5K and a 30-year-old woman running 18:39 both grade at 79%. Same performance, twenty-two years apart.
Why a finishing time can't do that it only compares like with like
On its own, a race time is only comparable to another time at the same distance by someone much the same age and sex. Age grading fixes that by expressing your time as a percentage of the world standard for your age and sex over that distance. One number, everybody on it. It also lets you see that you are still improving in your fifties even while your finishing times slow.
How the calculation works
age standard = open standard ÷ age factor
age grade % = age standard ÷ your time × 100
age-graded time = your time × age factor
Where those two numbers come from an age factor and an open standard, per distance
The WMA tables give two numbers for your age, sex and distance: an age factor (1.0 at open-class age, falling as you get older or younger than the peak years) and an open standard — the world-standard time for the distance in open class. Dividing the open standard by your age factor gives the world standard for someone your age, and your grade is how close you came to it.
The age-graded time is the same idea pointed backwards: multiplying your time by the age factor gives what the same performance would have been worth in your prime. It is the number to use when comparing a race you ran this year with one you ran twenty years ago.
Age grade bands
World Masters Athletics bands, the same ones parkrun shows.
| Age grade | Standard |
|---|---|
| 90%+ | World class |
| 80–90% | National class |
| 70–80% | Regional class |
| 60–70% | Local class |
| 50–60% | Solid recreational standard |
What a 70% 5K looks like at each age
The same performance level across a lifetime. Note how little of the slowdown happens before 50.
70% is regional class, 60% local. WMA 2020 factors.
| Age | Female 70% | Male 70% | Female 60% | Male 60% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 21:03 | 18:21 | 24:33 | 21:25 |
| 25 | 21:03 | 18:21 | 24:33 | 21:25 |
| 30 | 21:03 | 18:22 | 24:33 | 21:26 |
| 35 | 21:11 | 18:40 | 24:43 | 21:47 |
| 40 | 21:37 | 19:19 | 25:14 | 22:32 |
| 45 | 22:24 | 20:03 | 26:08 | 23:23 |
| 50 | 23:33 | 20:50 | 27:29 | 24:18 |
| 55 | 24:54 | 21:41 | 29:03 | 25:17 |
| 60 | 26:25 | 22:36 | 30:50 | 26:22 |
| 65 | 28:08 | 23:36 | 32:50 | 27:32 |
| 70 | 30:05 | 24:47 | 35:06 | 28:55 |
| 75 | 32:20 | 26:38 | 37:44 | 31:04 |
| 80 | 35:00 | 29:29 | 40:50 | 34:23 |
The open standards
The open-class world standards everything is anchored to: the time that grades 100% for a runner at peak age.
The 100% reference at each distance. WMA 2020.
| Distance | Female | Male |
|---|---|---|
| 1500 m | 3:52 | 3:26 |
| 5K | 14:44 | 12:51 |
| 10K | 29:43 | 26:24 |
| Half marathon | 1:04:58 | 58:01 |
| Marathon | 2:14:04 | 2:01:39 |
| 50K | 2:43:00 | 2:29:30 |
| 100K | 6:33:11 | 5:56:00 |
Limits worth knowing
- The standards are a fitted table, not a measurement. They are compiled from the best performances recorded at each age, smoothed, and revised every few years. A grade from the 2020 tables won't line up exactly with one from 2015.
- The course isn't in the number. A hilly or hot race grades lower than the same fitness would on a flat, cool one. Grades compare best between runnings of the same event.
- Age means age on race day, not your age group. The tables run year by year.
Questions
What is age grading in running?
It turns a race time into a percentage of the world standard for someone your age and sex at that distance. 100% is world standard for your age group. That puts every runner on one scale: a 62-year-old woman running 24:00 for 5K and a 30-year-old woman running 18:39 both grade at 79%.
How is age grade calculated?
The WMA tables give two numbers for your age, sex and distance: an age factor (never above 1.0) and an open-class standard time. Divide the open standard by the age factor and you get the world standard for someone your age. Your grade is that divided by your actual time, as a percentage. Multiply your time by the age factor instead and you get your age-graded time, which is what the same run would have been worth in your prime.
What is a good age grade percentage?
Above 90% is world class, above 80% national, above 70% regional, above 60% local. Anything over 50% is a solid recreational standard. The bands come from World Masters Athletics and are the ones parkrun shows in its age-grade column.
Which age grading tables does this use?
The 2020 edition of the WMA road and track factors compiled by Alan Jones, covering ages 5 to 100 across 28 distances from 60 m to 200 km. Distances between table columns are interpolated linearly. The tables are licensed CC BY 4.0 and reproduced with attribution.
Does age grading work for any distance?
Anywhere between 60 m and 200 km, yes. Distances that fall between two table columns are interpolated. Outside that range the nearest column is used as-is, so read those results as indicative. Age grading also knows nothing about the course: a hilly or hot race grades lower than the same fitness would on a flat, cool one.
Every personal best, age-graded
PaceWise grades your whole PB list at once, so you can see which distance is really your strongest — and watch a grade climb while the finishing times slow. Free, offline, no account.
Age-grade factors: WMA 2020 tables compiled by Alan Jones, encoded by the Runalyze age-grade project, licensed CC BY 4.0 and reproduced with attribution.