Good for you for going anyway, sometimes the logistics of getting all our gear together gets in the way of actually doing something. I probably would have done the same but would have complained more. :)

Here's a previous thread on a similar topic:
http://www.trifuel.com/forums/showthread.php?t=376

There's only one way to tell how bad it is :D

Some people really have tough feet, I pride myself on my feet lasting for as long as they do during races... I know some people get blisters no matter what they do.

There's a ballet dancer technique for toughening feet involving vinegar, and I know some racers who do that. I haven't gone that route yet, but might give it a try before the next 24 hour adventure race.

Tough feet are nice to have, and if you have feet that have been conditioned to run sockless, then go for it, but it won't be pretty first couple times around, and in my estimation not entirely worth it. :)

Happy training!

This is my first post on this site so "Hi" to everyone.
I have competed in 5 Ironman races & numerous 1/2 IM, Olympic & Sprint Tri's & I never wear socks. The reason is that I have a tendency to pour large amounts of water over my head which then finds it's way down my legs & into my shoes. When I wear socks they become like soggy sponges, irritate my feet, make them heavier and eventually create blisters. I have experimented with vaseline, KY Jelly & Body Glide. The product that I discovered last year is called Blister Shield. It is manufactured by a company called Two Tom's & they are located in New Hampshire. They make 2 products - a powder & a roll-on liquid. I use both pouring the powder in my shoes before the race begins & using the applicator before the race & sometimes in T2. My run is my strength and has allowed me to place & win my age group. If this type of situation fits your profile give it a try (IN TRAINING FIRST, PLEEZE!!) and see if it can work for you.

I tried to save some time in transition once by not putting on my socks and I'll never do it again. It was an Olympic distance tri and after the 10K run my heel bled so bad that the back of my white shoes turned blood red. It took weeks for my heel to get back to normal again and I swore then that I'd never do that again. I lost minutes in the run and only saved seconds in transition. As the Coach mentioned earlier, test it out in training first. If you're going to do a IM distance race sockless, make sure you train sockless. For me a good pair of socks goes a long way. Good luck in your experiment.

second that on bad smelling shoes. I have a pair of salomon amphibians, and the intent was to use them for adventure races heavy on water content. using them like tivas, they quickly aquired this amazing odor, now i can smell them standing. it's incredible :)

so just a heads up with that :D

i always wear socks with running shoes, and carry and extra pair on long days if they get too soaked, and my running shoes just smell like dirt, not some biology experiment like my amphibians

this may be abit strange and slightly offtopic, but in my current occupation (mil), i kind of needed to create pretty hard/blister free feet for traversing long distances in boots and stuff with heavy weights on my back.... so one technique i found was.

atleast once a day i would take off my shoes and socks and walk a partially gravelled/paved parking lot outside where i lived. It was kind of the perfect mix of ruff terrain (torn up gravel and such) though not to rocky to the point that it was just piled up rocks..... hopefully you can imagine what im saying.

anyways, i would just walk around for up to 15-30 mins on that ruff terrain barefeet thinking or listening to music.... in the beginning i could only move several feet without crying/stopping.... but over time, my feet have become quite hard (unfornately abit less attractive i guess :) ) and have aloud me to do things like running without shoes on TRIs & or rapid movement without shoes on ruff terrain.

well its not for everyone, but just imagine back to the old native americans or early human tribes when footwear wasn't always the statis quo. ....well just my 2 cents.

in the same vein as Wakizashi, there has been some research done on people who run barefoot, or have stronger feet because of spending more time barefoot, and are, as a result, faster runners for it. i think that shoe that Nike that provides is a basic foot cover designed with that in mind. but then, if you have to buy a shoe that gets your feet stronger by practically running barefoot, why not just do what Waki is doing and try that?

I am in process of going trying to go barefoot. So far I kind of do what Waki mentioned which I call toughness training. Almost everyday I go out and run about 10-15 minutes barefoot. I started on side walk and now am mostly transitioned to rough paved roads. It's really cool to see your body gradually adapt and what at first seemed impossible is now no problem. I can't really transition to it 100% yet (bummer I found out too late for this training season) until mid-August when my main race for the year is over (running a marathon up and down Pikes' Peak isn't the first race I really want to attempt barefoot), but after that I'll be going 100% barefoot unless it's too cold (I'm sure it will take me most of the off-season to get back to my current training level). For lots of fun info about running barefoot:

http://www.runningbarefoot.org

kddubb

and btw, they mention that biking barefoot is just as much of an option as running barefoot. They mentioned that many barefoot triathletes are right up with the leaders for transition times. If all goes well in the off-season I'll probably put out a post about my progress next year.

I prefer socks... as for wet socks, wear cool max bike socks (in your preference of cool design) it takes 5 seconds to put on socks. A trivial amount. In high school, I always raced without socks, and my old flats still reek. The comfort outweighs anything. Take the 5 seconds or less it takes to put em on.