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40Race Shoe FinderEst. 2023 · London

Head to head

Nike Alphafly 3vs
PUMA Fast-R Nitro Elite 3

Alphafly 3

£203

Typical street price · £285 RRP

40mm — on the limit
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3

£260

Typical street price · £260 RRP

39mm — road legal

Choose the Alphafly 3 if…

  • You want something more forgiving. This is the steadier platform — useful if your form goes late, or if you are on your feet longer.
  • Money matters: it is selling around £203 against £260, and the time difference between them is smaller than the price difference suggests.

Choose the Fast-R Nitro Elite 3 if…

  • You want the lighter shoe: 170g against 218g, a 48g difference you will feel late in a race.
  • You race off a strong, repeatable stride and want the more aggressive ride rather than the safer one.
  • You are racing 10K — built for it, where the Alphafly 3 is not.

What does this
mean for you?

Every figure below is recalculated from your race and your current time. The gap between two shoes is not fixed — it grows with how long you are on your feet.

Over marathon from 3:45:00

Time back
Alphafly 3: 179s–260sFast-R Nitro Elite 3: 186s–266s
Cost per second saved
Alphafly 3: £0.23Fast-R Nitro Elite 3: £0.30

Ranges, not promises. Both figures are against a standard trainer, and the honest answer for most runners is that the difference between two shoes of this class is smaller than the difference a month of decent training makes.

Every number.

010203040504032
Alphafly 3
010203040503931
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3

What you pay

Street price
Alphafly 3£203■
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3£260

What the shoe is actually selling for across the shops we read, not its RRP.

RRP
Alphafly 3£285
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3£260

List price. Almost nobody pays it for a race shoe.

Cost per race
Alphafly 3£51■
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3£69

Street price divided by the races the foam stays fast for.

Cost per second saved
Alphafly 3£0.23■
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3£0.30

The whole-life question: what each second of race time costs you.

What it does

Estimated saving
Alphafly 3179s–260s
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3186s–266s■

Against a standard trainer, over the distance and time set above.

Economy gain
Alphafly 33.4–4.6%
Fast-R Nitro Elite 33.5–4.7%■
Built for
Alphafly 3Half · Marathon
Fast-R Nitro Elite 310K · Half · Marathon
Best use case
Alphafly 3Still the reference marathon shoe. The Air pods give a propulsive forefoot that nothing else quite replicates, and the wider platform makes it manageable late in a race when your form has gone.
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3The most aggressive shoe on this list. The decoupled heel and exposed plate make it feel like it is actively throwing you forward.

How it is built

Weight
Alphafly 3218 g
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3170 g■

Manufacturer figure at men's US 9.

Stack (heel)
Alphafly 340 mm
Fast-R Nitro Elite 339 mm
Stack (forefoot)
Alphafly 332 mm
Fast-R Nitro Elite 331 mm
Drop
Alphafly 38 mm
Fast-R Nitro Elite 38 mm
Foam
Alphafly 3ZoomX with Air Zoom pods
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3NITROFOAM Elite
Plate
Alphafly 3carbon fibre
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3carbon fibre

Rules and fit

Road legal
Alphafly 3Yes (40 mm)
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3Yes (39 mm)

World Athletics caps road racing shoes at 40 mm of stack.

Fit
Alphafly 3standard
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3standard
Stability
Alphafly 3balanced
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3demanding

Neither is better in the abstract — it depends on your stride.

Race life
Alphafly 3~250 km■
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3~240 km

How long the foam stays fast, not how long the shoe survives.

Data confidence
Alphafly 3verified
Fast-R Nitro Elite 3verified

■ marks the better figure where one is genuinely better. Fit, foam, drop and stability carry no mark — they depend on your foot and your stride, not on which shoe is superior.

In your size.

Where to buy

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£199.99at Run North West — £85 under RRP

9 retailer checks failed on the last run, so their prices are missing rather than wrong.

Prices are captured when the site is built and stamped with the time of that check. We never rank a retailer by what it pays us; where a link earns a commission it is marked sponsored and the price you pay is unchanged.

Where to buy

Your UK size

Best price today — some sizes£182at Upandrunning — £78 under RRP

9 retailer checks failed on the last run, so their prices are missing rather than wrong.

Prices are captured when the site is built and stamped with the time of that check. We never rank a retailer by what it pays us; where a link earns a commission it is marked sponsored and the price you pay is unchanged.