Avoid the soft sand at first.

I've run on the beach before. The first tim I did it I ended up running 10 miles as it felt so good. I hadn't planned to go that far, also my waiting family wasn't happy :).

I've also read about it a few places and yea it should be just fine, the only real issue is that the slight slant could probably cause problems if that is all you run on.

Just remember to run on the hard stuff not in the dunes.

No shoes of course,

The reason to wear shoes is cusioning and protection from the ground. You really should not have anything on the ground (glass, bees, etc) so protection is not an issue. Even though the ground is stable beach sand is probably the most cusioned even more than dirt treadmill or anything a shoe can do for you. Also, you are very liable to ruin your shoes runnin in damp sand for any distance. 

I've done quite a bit of beach running, and I love it.  I always wear shoes, though.   You do need them as you do encounter all sorts of shells, pieces of wood, rocks, and stuff like that.  It's very rarely perfectly smooth for the duration of your run.  I only run at low tide, when the sand is hard packed.    I did run about a mile or two without shoes this past summer and it was hard on my feet.  The cushion of the shoes still helps a lot on hard packed sand.  Your arches also get excessive stress without shoes.   Make sure the slant of the beach is very gentle.  There nothing better than running on the beach at sunset.  A wonderful experience.   The problem is getting low tide to coincide with sunset.  It does not happen very often.

I wouldn't call myself a "runner" but I do some jogging when I can.  I live in Western Maryland so I usually run on

the canal or on a trail.  However, two years ago I was on the coast and did some barefoot running on the beach.  The next

day I could barely walk.  It seems I produced a case of plantars fasciitis (sp?).  In short, I stretched the muscle that runs

along the bottom of your foot.  This syndrome plagues me still from time to time.  Something to think about. I wouldn't

recommend running barefoot in the sand.

I'm also going to have to recommend wearing shoes when running on the beach.  To not do so is essentially running barefoot on a sandpaper track.

As far as running on the soft sand goes, I am all for it!  You need to wear shoes, and most important, you need to run slowly.  I've recovered from many injuries by running on the soft sand on the beach.  It does an incredible job of strengthening your knees and ankles.   I recovered from a shattered ankle this fall by starting back with slow beach running on the soft sand.

Also, running on the soft sand is very very much like mountain running up very steep hills.   It saps all your inertia and gives nothing back, just like big hills.

But remember, the most important thing if to do if you run on soft sand is GO SLOW!

- gurutc