You will never go back. 
Welcome to the dark side.
If your feet still ache it could be cleat position or possibly the shoes are too tight. Different insoles would be an easy and cheap first thing to try. Let the bike shop see you on the bike and make adjustments from there. If you do make a change yourself, outline the position of the cleat on the sole of the shoe first. Tighten the bolts securely, as one loose bolt will mean you can't get out of that pedal.
Keith wrote: Once you get used to them, you'll be able to get out as fast or faster than with toe clips. And you'll have an easier time getting back in if you have to restart in the middle of a technical section.
My experience exactly. I can't stand toe clips anymore, they seem sloppy and slow, and impossilbe to get back in properly with any sort of speed. It's kinda like driving a manual transmission. It takes practice, but once you get it right you will never want to go back. It becomes subconscious and fast.
As for the crashing everybody keeps talking about, I didn't fall over when I was learning, but that was right after watching my brother fall repeatedly for a whole summer and finally giving up. He got his revenge for all of my laughing though... It turns out repeatedly crashing those fancy anodized aluminum pedals onto the concrete can cause cracks... After a few years when the little brother borrows said mountain bike with said pedals-the same little brother who just spent the previous 2 years biking hundreds of miles a week, building leg muscle- may, when applying maximum POWWERRR (clarkson voice) up a hill, break the pedal in half, falling off of the bike.
What actually happened was the outside rim of the pedal broke off, and the stuff that was attached to the center of the pedal just slid off. Since I was standing and pushing hard, my ankle that was still clamped in got a full force twisting. I limped for a while after that...
Keith wrote: Once you get used to them, you'll be able to get out as fast or faster than with toe clips. And you'll have an easier time getting back in if you have to restart in the middle of a technical section.
Yep. Switching from clips to clipless was a god-send for riding the steep, tight, technical east coast trails around here. Back when I was racing DH, I usually went clipless. I usually run flats for DH now mainly because they're easier to walk in when sessioning a feature on the trail and it's quicker to get on the bike when there's minimal run-up to a drop or something. Even so, if I ride at a mtn like Plattekill, NY, I'm only comfortable on those trails with clipless.
I ordered a set of the crankbrother smarty's. I'm going to go to a bike store to try on shoes once they come in. Thanks for the tips.
crank bros are elegant and work well. You made a good choice. Keep em off rocks and such and youll enjoy them for a long time to come!
I haven't riden in years, but when I did, I used Speedplay Frogs...loved em.
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