Altra Vanish Carbon 3 Review: A Safe Pair of Hands for Marathon Day
Overview
I've been running in the Altra Vanish Carbon 3, and on looks alone it's one of my favourite shoes this year. Sometimes you see a shoe and just think, that's a bit of me. Maybe it's the aggressive toe spring, the Altra branding down the side or the cheeky glimpse of carbon plate, but something about the look of this shoe really caught my eye.
This is Altra's new top-end racing shoe. Altra are known for their zero-drop line-up and for their anatomical FootShape toe box, which gives your toes room to spread out rather than cramming them into a point. Put it side by side with something like an Adidas racer and the difference in the forefoot is striking.
It'll cost you £220, which is a lot of money, so it needs to be pretty good. After plenty of miles in it, including a 10-miler with a faster finish, here's how it stacks up.
Specs
The Vanish Carbon 3 is a race-day shoe priced at £220. It has a 40 mm stack at the heel dropping to 36 mm at the forefoot, which gives a 4 mm drop, not the zero drop Altra is famous for.
Under foot there's a two-piece supercritical PEBA foam running the full length of the shoe, with a full-length, split-toe carbon fibre plate sandwiched in between. The split in the plate is designed to let your big toe flex independently. And of course you get Altra's signature FootShape toe box, which lets your toes splay naturally while keeping the midfoot and heel secure.
My UK 9.5 weighs 253 g. For reference, the Nike Alphafly 4 comes in at 213 g and the Adidas Adios Pro 5 at 195 g, so this is on the heavier side for a carbon racer. I'd say its closest rival is something like the Topo Specter Elite.
Design and Build
The PEBA midsole comes in two pieces because the carbon plate runs between them for the full length of the shoe, and you can see it peeking out at the sides. The plate is split at the toes rather than being one flat piece, so it moves with your foot, and it works hand in hand with that two-piece foam construction.
There's a really early, high toe spring, which makes this a very rockered shoe, but I've come to like it. Up top you get sawtooth laces, which I'm a fan of, and a racy tongue. Annoyingly, the tongue isn't gusseted. There's enough padding in the heel, the mesh upper is really nice, and there's a cool-looking insole too. The outsole has a ton of rubber coverage. They could have saved a fair bit of weight there, but they've clearly prioritised durability, and the grip is excellent.
A Word of Warning on Sizing
I want to flag this early: watch your sizing. My pair is a UK 9.5, which is a US 10.5 and my usual size across every brand, but I'm right up at the front of this shoe. Looking back, I probably should have gone for a UK 10.
It's partly the sizing and partly the way the shoe is built. Because it's so heavily rockered, and because I land more towards the forefoot, I feel like I'm sitting a little too far forward. When I picked up the pace at the end of a 10-mile run, I barely noticed it. But at easy paces, which is most of my running right now while I taper, I felt like I was jamming my toes towards the front. If you're between sizes, I'd seriously consider going half a size up.
Performance and Ride
Sizing aside, I really like the bounce and feel of the foam. The PEBA isn't overly soft, which is a good thing, because it keeps the shoe stable and responsive. The carbon plate and foam work really well together.
It's not a particularly fast-feeling shoe, and I think much of that comes down to the weight. Even so, it's very capable when you want to pick up the pace. The ride reminds me of the Brooks Hyperion Elite, which also uses a PEBA-based foam in its DNA Gold midsole. The Brooks feels a little lighter, but it tears the back of my Achilles to bits, and the Altra doesn't. This is definitely the more comfortable of the two.
It also reminds me of the New Balance SC Elite v4, which was a friendlier, more forgiving marathon race shoe. That's a big compliment, because the Vanish Carbon 3 captures that same feeling. The wide forefoot combined with the stable heel should support a lot of runners through the closing miles of a marathon.
Is It a Marathon Shoe?
The only things really letting this shoe down are the sizing and the weight. It's a bit too heavy for me to take into a race where I'm chasing a time. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised it might be perfect for a different kind of marathon.
I've got Amsterdam in a couple of weeks, where I'm planning to run hard and empty the tank. A couple of weeks after that, I've got the New York City Marathon, and that one's all about getting round, having fun and enjoying the day. For New York, I'll need a shoe that feels comfortable, stable and reliable, gives me confidence and looks after me when I'm probably feeling ruined on that big climb up the side of Central Park.
The Vanish Carbon 3 ticks every one of those boxes. It's stable, versatile and a safe pair of hands, with a great upper, good lockdown and a phenomenal outsole. If I can get hold of it half a size up, it could genuinely be coming to New York with me, and that's a real vote of confidence in this shoe.
