Mile pace is the number of minutes and seconds it takes you to run one mile, written as minutes:seconds per mile, for example 9:09. A lower number is faster. Treadmills, running watches and most US race results quote pace this way, so it is the figure many runners compare week to week.
To read a mile pace, multiply it out: at 9:00 per mile, two miles take 18:00 and a 5K (3.11 miles) takes about 27:58. To compare with a kilometer pace, divide the mile pace by 1.609344. A 9:00 mile pace is 5:36 per kilometer, 8:00 per mile is 4:58 per kilometer and 10:00 per mile is 6:13 per kilometer.
Common race goals translate into these mile paces: a 25:00 5K is 8:03 per mile, a 1:00:00 10K is 9:39 per mile, a 2:00:00 half marathon is 9:09 per mile and a 4:00:00 marathon is 9:09 per mile. Enter any two of distance, time and pace above and choose which one to solve for.
If you are running a one-mile time trial, your finish time is your mile pace, because the distance is exactly one mile. Switch the unit to kilometers to see the same effort as a per-kilometer pace: a 7:00 mile is 4:21 per kilometer, and a 6:00 mile is 3:44 per kilometer.