Specter Elite is the first race shoe Topo has made. A carbon-fibre plate sits under an ultralight RevFoam ATPU midsole with an aggressive rocker, a racer tongue strips weight out of the upper, and the whole thing comes in at 201 g in a men's 9. What sets it apart is not the plate but the last: this is a racing shoe built on Topo's roomy, foot-shaped toe box.
It suits you if you race on road from 10K up and the pinched fit of a conventional racer is what has kept you out of plated shoes.
It is not a trainer and it is not a first plated shoe to learn on. The ride is insistent below race effort, the foam wears out far faster than a trainer's, and the price only makes sense if you are actually racing rather than rotating it into easy days.