Metaspeed Edge Tokyo vs Endorphin Pro 5

The Metaspeed Edge Tokyo is ASICS at its sharpest: a 159g carbon racing shoe built to chase a personal best on the road and not much else. It is the Edge, so it is tuned for cadence runners, the people who get faster by turning their legs over quicker rather than by reaching for a longer stride. If that is you, the geometry here works with you instead of fighting you. At 38.9mm in the heel and a 6.9mm drop it sits right at the front of the modern marathon shoe pack, and the carbon plate gives you a firm, snappy platform that wants to roll forward. This is a race-day tool, not a do-everything trainer. Step on at easy pace and it feels stiff and a touch unforgiving. Hold goal pace and it comes alive. If you lengthen your stride to find speed, look at the stride-biased Metaspeed Sky Paris instead. At £230 it is a serious outlay, so be honest about whether you will use it.

The Endorphin Pro 5 is Saucony's carbon marathon racer, and the fifth version is the most complete one yet. This is a road racing shoe built around a slotted carbon SpeedRoll plate sitting in a stack of PWRRUN PB and Super Critical foam, so you get that firm, rockered snap through toe-off that the Endorphin line has always chased. At £225 it lands squarely in the super-shoe bracket alongside the Nike Vaporfly 4 and adidas Adios Pro, and it earns the price if you are racing anything from 10k to a marathon. Compared with the Endorphin Pro 4 it feels a touch more planted and a little more forgiving on tired legs, without losing the rolling geometry that makes it want to move at pace. In our view this is a proper PB tool, not an everyday cruiser. Buy it to race, and it delivers.