Saucony Endorphin Elite 2 vs Asics Metaspeed Ray:
Which to Choose

These two are closer in mission than almost any other pairing you could put side by side — both are neutral, both max out our pace and responsiveness scales, both use a firm PEBA-class racing foam (Saucony's PWRRUN HG, Asics's ATPU FF Leap), and both peak in the same 3:00–3:20 min/km window with the marathon as their sweet spot. The differences are in the details, and they matter. The most decisive one is weight: the Ray comes in at roughly 129g in a men's US 9 against about 199g for the Endorphin Elite 2 — a genuinely large 70g gap that makes the Ray feel feathery and eager where the Elite 2 feels more substantial and planted underfoot. Stack heights are close at the heel (about 40mm on the Ray, 39.5mm on the Elite 2), but the Ray carries more foam up front at 35mm versus 31.5mm, which combines with its lower 5mm drop to sit you flatter and encourage a quick, forefoot-driven turnover; the Elite 2's steeper 8mm drop gives a touch more heel-to-toe ramp that a wider range of footstrikes can load. The plates differ too: the Elite 2 runs a full-length carbon plate for continuous, propulsive stiffness, while the Ray uses a forefoot-biased three-quarter plate that trims weight and allows a little more flex behind the toes. Neither is a stability shoe — both are deliberately tippy — but the Ray's more extreme paring-back makes it the wobblier and less durable of the two at anything below race effort, whereas the Elite 2's slightly heavier, fuller build reads as marginally more composed. In short: same category, but the Elite 2 is the more grounded, higher-drop full-plate racer and the Ray is the lighter, lower-drop, more single-minded one.