this was a fun challenge - running on sand is no picnic and i don't have much experience with it. i wore shoes throughout and tried to avoid getting my feet wet or getting too much sand in the shoes. ended up starting around low tide - ideally would have gotten an earlier start by a few hours but sadly my family wasn't interested in getting up at 4am on vacation to drive me to the beach. that meant the tides were coming up pretty quickly in the last 8 or so miles - not sure if there is normally flat/hard packed sand in those areas but i didn't find any by the time i arrived today. so the last bit was a real slog which is fine - i was actually expecting the whole thing to be like that. in reality there were a lot of flat/packed sections in the middle miles and it felt like half the effort of those later miles. the last tenth of a mile up the dunes to the finish spot was epic, i was really spent at the end.
scenery was great and there was abundant wildlife out there - birds, seals, fish, crabs. beach was deserted in some spots but every few miles there seemed to be access and a few folks around - so if you want to do this supported or self-supported that should be an option.
i ran unsupported, started with 2L of tailwind and that lasted the whole trip. it wasn't too hot - maybe mid 70s towards the end , sunny, there was a nice breeze, and it was somewhat humid but probably better than normal.
would love to see someone do this barefoot (maybe we can have a barefoot category for these beach runs?)