Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 vs Alphafly 3

The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 is a running shoe with one job: get you to a marathon finish line faster than anything else you own. At 99g it is barely there on your foot, and that sub-100g weight is the whole point. adidas has stripped away everything that does not make you quicker, then leaned on a firm ENERGYRIM perimeter to hold the shape and snap the shoe through toe-off. The result is a pure marathon shoe that feels less like footwear and more like a piece of race kit. It sits at the very top of the market on price, and it is not built to soak up your training miles. We rate it as a specialist race-day tool for runners chasing a personal best who already know their legs can handle a light, aggressive ride. If that is you, few road racing shoes feel this fast. If it is not, the Vaporfly 4 or adidas own Adios Pro 4 give you most of the speed with far more shoe underfoot.

Most carbon marathon shoes want strong, well-trained legs before they give much back. The Alphafly 3 asks for less than its looks suggest, and that came through in almost every review we read. Nike made the midsole one continuous piece for this version (the Alphafly 2 had a big gap under the midfoot) and took a lot of weight out. Reviewers describe a smoother roll from landing to toe-off, and it no longer feels clumsy on a warm-up jog. Ben Parkes, who has raced marathons in it, reckons it isn't so aggressive that only elites benefit, and thinks plenty of intermediate marathoners will get a lot from it.

It's still a specialist carbon racing shoe, and at £285 RRP it sits near the top of the market. It's also loud on the road, and some feet find it snug. For 5K and 10K races the lighter, snappier Vaporfly 3 makes more sense. For the half and the full marathon, we'd still put the Alphafly 3 near the front of the queue.