The Runner's Arc · free from KR Runs
Your best running may still be ahead of you.
Put your whole running life on one fair scale. See where you peaked, where you are now, and how much of the gap is age — and how much is fitness you can get back.
Built by Kevin Richardson. I took 6:38 off my 5km between 2012 and 2021 — 22:39 to 16:01 — around a full-time job. My story
Your details
Age grading needs your age and sex to score anythingYour first race or parkrun — the line in the sand. It shows how far you have come.
Your best ever at each distance, whenever you ran it. Three or four is plenty. The year matters — age grading needs to know how old you were, and being a year out shifts the result by about a point. A rough year beats no year.
The last six months. Two or three at different distances read far more reliably than one. Mark training efforts as training — a hard solo run is not a race, and it should not set your level.
Every target time is shown at this distance.
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Free · unsubscribe any timeGet your arc by email: your numbers, your next step, and a link that reopens it any time. If you like, I will also keep in touch with the occasional email on closing the gap.
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Age grading uses the 2025 WMA / USATF road standards compiled by Alan Jones and Tom Bernhard, approved by the USATF Masters Long Distance Running Council on 10 January 2025. Equivalent times and VDOT use the published Daniels–Gilbert formulas. Both are estimates: they describe what your result implies, not what you are guaranteed to run.
About
From 22:39 to 16:01.
I'm Kevin Richardson — KR Runs. I'm a 45-year-old competitive runner in Newcastle upon Tyne, and I've been training to run faster for well over a decade, always around a full-time job.
On the age-graded scale that is a climb from 56.7% to 84.5% — from recreational to national class for my age. It is the same scale the Runner's Arc uses, and it is the reason I built it: I wanted a fair way to see where I had been, where I am, and what is still possible.
I believe anyone who wants to learn and improve can make that kind of progress from their own starting point. That is why I share my journey — including the parts that didn't work.
Lifetime bests
| Distance | Time | When | Age grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 mile | 4:49 | 2018 | 82.7% |
| 5km | 16:01 | Aug 2021 | 84.5% |
| 5 miles | 28:42 | Jun 2026 | 79.6% |
| 10km | 34:12 | Nov 2024 | 82.0% |
| 10 miles | 55:37 | Nov 2019 | 79.5% |
| Half marathon | 1:13:34 | Oct 2021 | 81.1% |
Age grades on the 2025 WMA / USATF road standards — the same tables as the Runner's Arc.
What fourteen years taught me
- Most running should be easy. I now run 80–95% of my volume aerobically, at a truly conversational effort, and keep the rest for tempo, threshold and race effort. If I could change one thing, it would be learning this sooner.
- Train by effort, not by pace. Chasing target paces led me to overreaching and shin splints. Training to effort — for me, power and time — has been the most liberating way to train.
- Your history is data. Every race you have run says something about what is still possible. That idea is the whole of the Runner's Arc.
Contact
Get in touch.
Questions about your arc, podcasts, interviews or collaborations — I read everything.