How many miles is a half marathon?
A half marathon is 13.1 miles, or 21.0975 kilometres, exactly half of the marathon's odd length. It takes most walkers over four hours, and it is the longest distance many people ever cover on foot in one go. Here is what it is in steps, minutes and calories.
The numbers
21.1 km · 13.1 miles, in steps
| A child, 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) | about 42,500 steps |
| 1.6 m (5 ft 3 in) | about 31,900 steps |
| 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in), the average adult | about 30,000 steps |
| 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) | about 28,300 steps |
| 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) | about 26,800 steps |
| A giraffe, 5.5 m (18 ft) | no idea, sorry |
Step length is about 41% of height. Give or take 10% for how you walk.
How long it takes to walk
| A stroll, 4 km/h | 5 h 16 min |
| A normal walk, 5 km/h | 4 h 13 min |
| A brisk walk, 6 km/h | 3 h 31 min |
Walking without stops, on level ground.
Calories, by body weight
| 55 kg (121 lb) | about 740 kcal (983 incl. resting) |
| 70 kg (154 lb) | about 941 kcal (1,252 incl. resting) |
| 85 kg (187 lb) | about 1,143 kcal (1,520 incl. resting) |
| 100 kg (220 lb) | about 1,345 kcal (1,788 incl. resting) |
The walk's own cost at 5 km/h. The second number adds what you would have burned sitting still, which is what some fitness trackers show.
Try your own distance
Steps
about 30,000
27,000 to 33,000 depending on your stride, about 0.70 m a step at this height.
Distance
21.1 km · 13.1 miles
Time on foot
4 h 13 min
at 5 km/h, no stops
Calories
Depends on your weight more than anything else. Enter it to see an estimate.
That is 1/3 of the way to Everest Base Camp.
How many steps is a half marathon?
About 30,000 steps for an adult of average height, from roughly 31,900 at 1.6 m to 26,800 at 1.9 m, because a walking step is about 41% of your height and a 1.7 m adult covers about 0.70 m a step. Your own count can sit 10% either side of the figure for your height.
How many calories does walking a half marathon burn?
About 940 kcal for a 70 kg (154 lb) adult at a normal pace, from roughly 740 kcal at 55 kg (121 lb) to 1345 kcal at 100 kg (220 lb). Body weight decides most of it. That is the walk’s own cost above sitting still. Some fitness trackers report the total including what you would have burned anyway, which comes out about a third higher. The figures come from a model of walking energy cost built on height, weight and speed, tested within a few percent of measured values across body sizes.
What a half marathon is
Half of 42.195 km, so 21.0975 km, or 13.109 miles. The strange precision is inherited: the marathon’s length was fixed at the 1908 London Olympics and adopted as the standard in 1921, and the half is simply that figure divided by two. It is the most popular long race distance in the world, long enough to need training and short enough to recover from in a day or two. Walked at a normal pace it is four hours and a quarter, and about three and a half at a brisk one, which is why walked half marathons are usually done as a day out rather than a race.
Walk the distance first
A race is a day. The way to be ready for it, and the way to enjoy the same distance without a start line, is to walk it in pieces on the days you already have. A half marathon is 1/3 of the way to Everest Base Camp, and reTrek is built for exactly that: pick a route, Everest Base Camp is free, and your everyday steps carry you along it with a short film waiting at each milestone. Something to look forward to. Progress you can see.
Walk it with a friend and pool your steps, or race them there, and find out which of you skips fewer evenings.
Other race distances
Sources: Road running disciplines and standard distances, World Athletics · Marathon, the 1908 and 1921 standardisation of 42.195 km, World Athletics · Energy expenditure during level human walking, Ludlow and Weyand, Journal of Applied Physiology, 2016