Vinny Mauri Had Not Picked His Chicago Race Shoes Days Before the Race

We have covered Vinny Mauri’s Chicago Marathon closely: American record pace through 30K, a stop to stretch in the closing miles and 10th place in 2:06:45, in only the second marathon of his life. A few days before the start, he still hadn’t decided which shoes he would race in.

When Marathon Handbook spoke to him during race week, the self-coached Ohioan had two ASICS models in mind, the Metaspeed Edge he wore to win Glass City in 2:05:54 in April and the Metaspeed Ray. “I don’t even know what race shoes I’m going to wear yet,” he said, adding that he wasn’t sure whether that habit was “an attribute or like a curse.”

The Ray, launched in 2025 at $300, is the lightest racer the brand has made, about 4.5 ounces in a men’s size 9 according to Tom’s Guide, with an FF Leap midsole. The current Edge comes in at just under 6 ounces and is built for runners who speed up by turning their legs over faster as well as lengthening their stride, and MH has a breakdown of how it differs from the Sky. Mauri signed with ASICS only 17 days before Chicago.

He had “a very good idea” of what he would mix into his bottles, he said, but he didn’t want to lock it in three weeks out when the weather could still change. Before Toledo he rehearsed his fueling on the treadmill, setting out four bottles for a 19-mile session, CITIUS Mag reported. The final call on everything, he said, would come on Saturday, when he checked everything in, and he would “make an educated decision and also go with a heart and gut feeling.”

“I probably won’t even listen to what the pace groups are. I’m just going to go off feel,” he said of the race itself, and on Sunday he did just that. At 15K he was at the front of a 13-man group in 44:24, LetsRun reported, and soon after that he left the pacers and pushed on, running 14:28 from 20K to 25K. He was still a second inside American record pace at 21 miles.

A hamstring started bothering him in mile 22, and he stopped more than once to stretch it as Clayton Young, Charles Hicks and Akira Akasaki went past. “Ended up paying for it later in the race, but I know exactly what I need to fix,” he told LetsRun afterward.

With more marathons against fields like Chicago’s, Mauri expects to “solidify a little bit more of those decisions early,” he said. “But for right now, I think I have the freedom to figure that out last minute.”