Endorphin Elite 2

The ride is fast, rockered and unmistakably a race-day feel. The IncrediRUN foam is soft underfoot but springs back hard when you load it, and the carbon plate ties that energy into a strong, rolling toe-off that flicks you onto the next stride. At marathon and half-marathon pace it feels smooth and eager, almost like the shoe wants to run quicker than you do. Drop to an easy jog and that same energy turns fidgety and unstable, so this is not a shoe you reach for on recovery days. The tall stack gives a long lever, rewarding a forefoot or midfoot strike and punishing a lazy heel-first landing. Over a full marathon the legs stay fresher than a firmer racer would leave them, which is the whole point.

There is a lot of foam here, with a 39mm heel and 33mm forefoot stack, but it does not feel plush in the pillowy sense. The IncrediRUN midsole is tuned for return rather than comfort, so it reads as soft-yet-lively: it compresses deeply then snaps back, giving you protection over marathon distance without the dead, mushy feeling of a max-cushion trainer. That combination is what keeps the legs fresher late in a long race. The trade-off is that at slow paces the cushioning feels unsettled and hard to control, because you are not loading it enough to get the rebound. Push the pace and the depth works with you rather than against you.

This is a neutral racing shoe with no stability structures, and the tall, soft stack makes it one of the less stable shoes you can put on. There is no medial post, no guide rails, just a narrow platform sitting a long way off the ground. At speed, with a committed forefoot landing, the carbon plate and rockered geometry provide enough guidance to keep things pointing forward. At easy pace, or if you are tired and start heel-striking, it can feel tippy and vague. Runners who need real support, or heavier heel-strikers, should treat this as a specialist tool and look elsewhere for anything but hard, fast efforts.

The upper is stripped down for racing: a thin, breathable engineered mesh with minimal padding and a light, low-bulk tongue. It breathes well and dries fast, which matters when you are pushing hard on a warm race day, and it saves weight everywhere it can. Comfort is good for a shoe this focused, but do not expect the cushioned, forgiving feel of a daily trainer. The heel counter is light and flexible, holding the foot through a secure lace rather than a stiff cup, so lockdown depends on getting the lacing right. For most runners it disappears on the foot once you are moving, which is exactly what you want from a race upper.