Adizero Distancestar 1 vs Vaporfly 4

The Adizero Distancestar is a track distance spike built to cover everything from the 1500m up to the 10,000m, which makes it one of the more versatile racing spikes you can buy. It sits below the specialist end of the Adizero range, so if you want a single spike for a whole season of track efforts rather than one event, this is the honest pick. A glassfibre plate underfoot gives you a firm, snappy platform without the aggressive geometry of a pure middle distance spike, so it stays comfortable across longer reps. At £90 it is one of the more accessible spikes on the market, which matters if you are a club runner buying your own kit. If you want something sharper for pure 1500m to 3000m work, the Adizero Avanti is the more aggressive sibling. For most distance track athletes, though, the Distancestar does the lot.

The Vaporfly 4 is Nike's pure road racer, the carbon racing shoe that started the super-shoe era and still sits near the top of it. This is a marathon shoe built for one job: returning as much energy as possible when you run fast. At a claimed 190g with a carbon plate and an 6mm drop, it is light, snappy and unmistakably race-focused. It is not a do-everything trainer and it does not pretend to be. Park it for easy days and bring it out when the pace matters. We rate it as one of the most accessible elite racers you can buy, because it suits a wider range of paces than the bigger Alphafly 3, which rewards a stronger, faster runner. If you want a proven 5k-to-marathon racing shoe with real pop and a forgiving ride, the Vaporfly 4 is an easy shortlist pick. At £260 RRP it is a serious investment, so it earns its place as a race-day specialist rather than a daily option.