Saucony Endorphin Speed 2

The Saucony endorphin speed 2 is an soft but responsive running shoe that can be used for faster training runs and even as a racer without feeling like you are wearing a brick. 

I have anyways been a hoka guy and use the bondi on lining runs and the mach 4 on shorter runs and races…until now. The endorphin speed 2 has quickly become the go to shoe for races or faster workouts. 

The shoe is very light but has a durable upper and what appears to be a durable lower with rubber treads in areas with high contact and foam in others. I found the shoe very easy to put on, important to triathletes in transition. 

The shoe boasts the nylon plate located within the sole that makes the front and toe portion snappy during the run, thus increasing the push off phase making it easier to propel you forward. I found this to be true as I was about 10 seconds faster per mile than my hoka mach 4s while running in similar conditions on the same course. Of course it is hard to be exact when using humans for testing but I felt faster and felt good which means a lot on race day. The nylon plate is something new to me as most of the shoes I have seen with plates are carbon. Saucony has that with the endorphin pro but I found the nylon to be a tad softer while still responsive which catered to longer runs well.I saw no sacrifice in performance but saved me 40 bucks so I’ll count that as a win.

The shoe has a 8mm heel toe drop meaning that the heel is 8mm higher than the toe. The hokas I run in are 4-5mm so while I felt a bit higher, it felt good and the trade off of the plate made it mush easier to run. This is no game changer in drops but is important for those on brooks ghost and the like that are in 12mm drops. You should be able to make a transition to this fairly easily where as your altra shoes and other zero drops increase the risk of injury to the ankle and foot. This should not be a problem here. 

Overall, I love the shoe. As a guy who has been exclusively in altra and hoka I can now say that Saucony has earned their way into my lineup. The altra torin 5 was a let down with a rigid tongue which made me branch out finding this gem. Couldn’t be happier with this shoe and excited to implement it into its first triathlon this weekend.