Puma Fast R3

First run in the Puma Fast R3. This was the shoe on the feet of all the Puma athletes over Boston Marathon weekend, racing distances from the mile to the marathon. Now, I think I was one of the few people who absolutely loved the Fast R2. The generous launch pad of aliphatic TPU in the forefoot and very rigid plate created such a lovely bounding sensation for each stride. And the extra long carbon plate underbite made me feel like I got just a bit something extra whenever I really needed to get up on the toes. The only problem was that the shoe was heavy. So for the Fast R3, they solved the weight problem, which I’m sure is so much easier said than done. The shoe now comes in as one of the lightest marathon shoes I’ve ever tested, but they’ve still managed to keep so much of that feeling that I loved in the Fast R2. So right now, Puma has two of the best marathon shoes on the market. The Deviate Nitro 3 was my race shoe of the year in 2024. And the Fast R3 will certainly be near the top of the list for 2025. And the fact that the Fast R3 isn’t instantly race shoe of the year goes to show how good things are going to be for 2025. Stay tuned because I just got in a pair of Pro Evo 2 for testing. And there’s still another couple of shoes that I will be able to discuss soon that I think will be in the mix for best race shoe of 2025. Disclosures: Puma provided these shoes for the purpose of review, so I did not have to pay for them. No one is paying me to make this video or to include their brand in this video, (which should be obvious by the discussion of other brands’ pinnacle product in this description). But in either event, no one previewed the video or caption before it published. No brands are tagged. No hashtags used.