See how your running time compares once age and sex are levelled out, find the time you need for a target grade, or grade a whole club field at once. Built on the official WMA road standards that parkrun's grading is loosely based on, for 5K up to the marathon.
Walking? parkrun grades a walked 5K on running factors too, so you can enter a walk time here for a comparable score.
Add your finishers, then calculate to rank the field by age grade. Times accept mm:ss or h:mm:ss. Download the ranked leaderboard as an Excel file for your results page or newsletter.
| # | Name | Sex | Age | Distance | Time | Age grade |
|---|
What age grading is
Age grading turns a raw finish time into a percentage that you can compare across ages, sexes and distances. It answers a simple question: how close is this run to the best a person of your age and sex could realistically achieve? A 70 year old running 25:00 for 5K and a 30 year old running 18:30 can sit at the same percentage, even though the clock says otherwise.
How the age grade calculator works
Every age and sex has an age standard for each distance, a benchmark close to the world best for that group. Your percentage is that standard divided by your time.
age-graded equivalent = your time x age factor
target time = (age standard) / (target % / 100)
The age factor is a number close to 1.00 at peak age that gets smaller with age. Multiplying your time by it shows what you would have run at your prime, which is why a strong run in your sixties can convert to a fast open-class equivalent. Use "Target time" to run it the other way, and "Running Clubs" to grade and rank a whole field, then export it. This calculator uses the official WMA and USATF road-running standards maintained by Alan Jones, the same set the long-standing running calculators are built on. Use the Standards toggle at the top to switch between the 2006/2010, 2015 and 2025 revisions. If you are checking a parkrun score, use 2006/2010, that is the vintage parkrun's grading is generally matched to.
What your percentage means
| Score | Class | Medal | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90%+ | World class | 🥇 | Among the best on the planet for your age |
| 80-90% | National class | 🥇 | Strong enough to feature nationally |
| 70-80% | Regional class | 🥈 | Competitive at county and regional level |
| 60-70% | Local class | 🥉 | A solid club and parkrun standard |
| Below 60% | Recreational | — | Building fitness, every run counts |
World records to chase
These are the current road world records, the fastest the distance has ever been covered on the road, split by sex. The "Find my grade" tab also shows your time as a percentage of the relevant record. Note that these are road marks: the sub-12:50 5K figures you may have seen reported are track 5000m records, which are a separate event.
| Distance | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 5K | 12:49 Berihu Aregawi | 13:54 Beatrice Chebet |
| 10K | 26:31 Yomif Kejelcha | 28:46 Agnes Ngetich |
| Half marathon | 57:20 Jacob Kiplimo | 1:02:52 Letesenbet Gidey |
| Marathon | 1:59:30 Sabastian Sawe | 2:09:56 Ruth Chepngetich |
Age grading and parkrun
The percentage next to your name in parkrun results is an age grade. parkrun's 5K figure is loosely based on the same World Masters Athletics tables, but it keeps its own version private and runs slightly generous, so expect this calculator to land within roughly half a percent to one percent of your parkrun score rather than matching it to the decimal. Walkers are graded on the same running factors, so a walked parkrun is comparable too. For a fuller plain-English walk through, the volunteers at Crathes Castle parkrun wrote an excellent guide.
How to improve your age grade
The percentage rewards quality over volume, so the gains come from sharper running rather than simply more of it. Add one weekly threshold session at a controlled hard effort, hold a short block of faster intervals through the month before a goal race, and practise even pacing so you are not banking time early and paying for it late. Consistent easy mileage and a little strength work underneath all of that protect the engine as you age, which is exactly what age grading is measuring.
Sources and data
This calculator uses the official road-running age-grade standards approved by World Masters Athletics (WMA) and USA Track & Field (USATF), compiled and maintained by Alan Jones. The Standards toggle offers three revisions. For parkrun, choose 2006/2010: parkrun does not publish its table, but it is widely understood to be based on the WMA 2006/2010 factors, and a checked M60 parkrun result matched our 2006/2010 figure to within about a tenth of a percent. The 2015 set is the long-established modern revision, and 2025 reflects more recent records, both of which sit a little lower. parkrun keeps its own table private, references 5k records and adds its own youngest and oldest ages, so treat any of these as very close rather than an exact match.
Data source: Alan Jones, Age-Grade-Tables, the WMA / USATF road standards (2006/2010, 2015 and 2025 revisions), released to the public domain under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 dedication.
Method reference: the calculation was validated against the Runalyze open-source age-grade library (code under the MIT licence, tables under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0).
Further reading on how parkrun approaches age grading: Crathes Castle parkrun, Age grading explained.
