It's funny you made about the same observation about trail crest as I my group did. For some reason all the reading I did left me believing that the worst was over after the switchbacks.
So wrong. I found the switchbacks a relief and the stretch from trail crest to summit basically torture. Torture being relative because like you I did not really have any issues.
Also like you the bottoms of my feet were done when I still had 3 miles left to walk. Those last 3 miles were just going through the motions and ignoring the dull pain in my feet to get to Portal.
Congrats on the summit and your preparation!
