Designed to deliver fast finishing speeds, the MetaRacer™ is being advertised as ASICS’ most advanced distance racing shoe yet.
I first heard about the MetaRacer™ back in March and since then, I have been quite excited about this shoe. With carbon-plated shoes being all the rage in the running shoe market these days, I had been eager to see what ASICS would bring to the table.
I finally got my hands on the MetaRacer™ recently, and since then, I have been trying out the shoe on my running sessions.
I love the design of the shoes, which come in a bright orange colour with black trimmings. The colour is funky and vibrant, and the ASICS shoes feel modern, yet retro at the same time. The colour and design was supposed to be for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
As they are primarily targeted as a racing shoe, I have used the MetaRacer™ mostly on my faster workouts, such as tempo runs and interval sessions with my running group, Coached. However in order to fully test out the shoe and see how it performs, I did use it for a few easy miles too. And as well, I also used them for a Run For Heroes 1km recently.
Slipping my feet into the shoe, the fit is comfortable with enough wriggle room in the toe box for me, and the sizing of the MetaRacer™ is comparable to my other ASICS shoes.
At just 168 grams for the women’s US size 8, the MetaRacer™ shoes are extremely light and also breathable, which is good for keeping my feet cool when I am running in Singapore’s balmy tropical weather.
The grip and traction of the MetaRacer™ appears to be good, based on what I have experienced so far on my runs. But I have not had the chance to test them out in wet weather, because it has been consistently sunny and warm, with no rain, over the past couple of weeks.
One thing I noticed is that the stack height for the MetaRacer™ is 9mm, which is very low for a carbon-plated shoe. This also means that my feet are close to the ground, similar to a racing flat.
In terms of the ride, the MetaRacer™ is a firm shoe, with some bounce, but significantly less compared to other carbon-plated shoes out there. In fact, I found that the feeling of the MetaRacer™ is closer to that of a racing flat, rather than a maximalist, springy shoe.
The MetaRacer™ feels comfortable enough, and not too awkward when doing slower paces, such as when I am walking or running my warm-ups or easy runs at about 6:30 mins/km pace. But I found that the MetaRacer™ still shines best during speed workouts and fast runs.
With the MetaRacer™ on my feet, it somehow becomes easier to push the pace, and the result was that I was able to run at a faster pace with somewhat less effort during my interval sessions.
I felt that the presence of the cushioning plus the carbon plate in the MetaRacer™ also seemed to make my legs feel fresher and not as heavy, at the end of my interval sessions.
Moving forward, the MetaRacer™ is a shoe that I will definitely continue to use for my fast track sessions, as well as shorter races from the 5km to the half marathon distance.
The MetaRacer™ is available in Singapore at ASICS stores across Singapore, as well as online and has a recommended retail price of S$299.
Unfortunately, due to the high demand and popularity of the shoe, most of the men’s sizes are currently sold out and will be available again from September.
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