Fast-R Nitro Elite 3 vs Endorphin Pro 5

The Fast-R Nitro Elite 3 is PUMA at its most single-minded: a carbon marathon racer built to hold hard pace and give a lot back when you push. At a claimed 170g it is genuinely light for a full-stack road racing shoe, and the split-forefoot geometry that defines the Fast-R line is back, so the ride feels aggressive and unashamedly race-only. This is a running shoe with one job, and it does it well. It sits at the sharp end of the super-shoe market on price at £260, right alongside the Nike Alphafly 3 and the adidas Adizero Adios Pro 4. If you want a carbon racing shoe purely for marathons, halves and fast tempo work, and you run best off a snappy propulsive platform rather than a soft rocker, it earns its place in the rotation. Just know what you are buying: this is a race-day tool, not a do-everything trainer.

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.