|| Before you go out and spend money, loosen up your shoes a bit. Feet
|| tend to swell when you ride and that could be part of the problem.

I'll try that on my ride this weekend....another metric century. Were it
not for this problem, I feel I could do the full century. But I can't
imagine endurance that pain for 40 miles (it starts up at around 60 miles
without fail, it seems).

Of course, I don't feel I wear my shoes too tight, but I'll try your
suggestion anyway simply because I might be wrong! And the swelling seems
plausible.

Last year, a guy at the LBS told me to take an extra pair of socks. He said
to stop at the rest stop nearest the halfway point and change socks. He said
it would give me a lift. Well, you know what? He was right! The dry socks
were nice, but I also think the feeling had to do with sitting down, taking
the feet out of the shoes and massaging them a bit before putting the new
socks on. Even just getting air on hot feet helped a lot.

Pat in TX