If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside.Learn about Outside Online's affiliate link policy Updated October 2026: After a summer of testing the latest running shoes and comparing them to existing top picks that are still available, we’ve added three new plated shoes to our list of the best marathon shoes. The Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 5 replaced the Nike Alphafly 3 as best overall due to its smooth, cushioned ride that’s suitable for most runners.
One shoe runners might overlook is the On Cloudboom Strike 2, which we highlighted for its stable ride that doesn’t compromise cushion or rebound. The biggest surprise was the Topo Specter Elite: Testers across the board raved about its wide toebox and lively new foam. As the heat and humidity give way to chilly mornings, every runner can sense that the fall marathon season is upon us.
The temperatures drop, your paces all get faster, and all your hard work this summer is about to pay off. But the closer you get to race day, the less you can do to improve your race readiness. The one thing you can still do to be able to race faster is get a fresh pair of marathon shoes.
Today’s racing shoes use highly specialized foams that lose some of their energy return over time. The easiest fix is to get a fresh pair a few weeks before your race. Whether you’re buying the same shoe or looking for something new, here are the best marathon running shoes available today, based on our testing.
Nine years after the debut of the first super shoe, the thick-stacked, carbon-plated racers are ubiquitous at the front of every marathon and increasingly common among runners in the pack looking to optimize their performance. These shoes have been lab-proven to improve running economy by a few percentage points, making it easier to maintain a faster pace. Runners also report that they experience less muscular fatigue when running in a super shoe that complements their stride.
These are some of the super shoes that our testers found most comfortable and effective at marathon pace, but your experience may vary (as we found when we had multiple testers compare 19 super shoes in a head-to-head showdown). Every super shoe boasts some sort of ultralight, hyper-responsive foam with an embedded, curved carbon-fiber plate—but each delivers a surprisingly unique ride. You’ll have to experiment to find one that gives you wings.
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