You are absolutely right! I was so pumped up I decided to go ahead and give it a try. It had cooled down to a nice, chilly 92 degrees outside, so I ventured out. I just did a short (2-mile) walk with running intervals mixed in and it felt GREAT! It truly felt so much better than when I try to run with shoes. I had to make myself stop. Near the end, the feeling that I might be working on a blister on one of my toes encouraged me to remember to stick to my "slow and steady" promise & just walk the rest of the way.
I'm pretty pumped! And my dear feet are getting rewarded with a nice cold, ice water soak.
I just wanted to add that you should try alternating surface textures as well. I have actually found that I like something slightly rougher, as opposed to the super smooth stuff. I find that even the smallest pebble feels sharp and/or gets stuck to my foot on the smooth stuff, but when I run on rougher surfaces it kind of "cleans off" anything that gets stuck. Also note that just because a surface seems super rough when you walk on it, it will be a different feeling all together when you run on it.