Li-Ning Red Hare 9 Ultra - Long Run Max Cushion

Marathon training doesn't need a shoe that only makes sense once a fortnight. The Red Hare 9 Ultra is built to be the one shoe doing the heavy lifting through your whole block: long runs, tempo sessions, and even the race itself.

It runs a plastic plate through a triple-density midsole, with Li-Ning's Super Boom Capsule foam doing the bouncing in the middle layer.  This super trainer has enough propulsion to feel lively at the end of a long run, without the harshness a stiff carbon plate can bring if you run in them alot. Paired with the high stack of cushion, it holds its comfort through the kind of mileage a marathon block demands, rather than going flat after a couple of months. It's a shoe that can handle whatever you want to throw at it - this is not a fragile race day shoe, though it feels fast enough to be.

If you're building toward your first marathon, this is a forgiving, high-stack ride that won't punish you for slowing down in the back half. If you've already got a few finish lines behind you, you'll recognise the cushioned AND rockered feel straight away.  

This is your Megablast or Vomero Plus equivalent, though I reckon its even better than those. Avishek Singh of the Bush Turkeys has put a thousand km's of marathon block training into his and they still feel amazing; these shoes are a marathoners best friend. Yowana, Jog On Crago and Sagasu have also given this shoe amazing reviews.