It was a hot one in the Windy City, but that didn’t stop elite runners from crushing it at the Chicago Marathon. We all know 34-year-old champion Amos Kipruto, who won with a blazing 2:01:09, gets his speed through conditioning, good genes, and iron will, but we shoe nerds can’t help wondering what he was wearing on his feet. Turns out he and women’s champ Hawi Feysa, 27, who finished at 2:13:33, were both wearing the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3.
The shoe will be restocked on Adidas’s site October 29 at 3 p.m. Here are the top five runners from the men’s and women’s races, their times, and the shoes they wore. Both Amos Kipruto and Tadese Bikila raced in the Pro Evo 3, but it was Kipruto who took the lead, after coming in second at last year’s Chicago Marathon.
The Pro Evo 3 had a limited drop in April—and sold out in minutes following Sabastian Sawe’s sub-2 London Marathon win. The shoe is set for a wider release October 29. It is over an ounce lighter than the Pro Evo 2, at 3.4 ounces (sub-100 grams), and features a new carbon-fiber-infused EnergyRim embedded in its Lightstrike Pro Evo midsole.
The Nike Apex won’t be available to the rest of us until January, but it’s unlike any other Nike super shoe we’ve previously tested. The Apex has two stacked Air Zoom units in the forefoot, which promise 40 percent more energy return than the Alphafly 3. The shoe also has a zero-drop 40 mm stack height.
With Mengesha’s podium finish, it has us rethinking Altra’s comment on crafting a non-zero drop super shoe to compete with other shoe brands. Last year, Kiplimo raced Chicago wearing the Alphafly 3. This year, Kiplimo ran in the Apex and kept up with Kipruto until mile 22.
Kiplimo eventually faded to fourth. Clayton Young finished 7th racing in the Brooks Hyperion Elite 6. Young, who finished in the second-fastest U.S. time ever on a record-eligible course at 2:05:23, made the switch from Asics to Brooks earlier this year.
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