He made the bet that he would do it barefoot but on his live he admitted he had shoes on and showed his shoes
I genuinely believe he did it, what he did is not as difficult as some may think if you are active and athletic. Once as a teenager I didn't have any money and got on the wrong bus and had to walk from 95th western to 61st Princeton. Took me about 2 hours to do it and I think that's half of what Paul had to walk. I was tired as hell but I def could do it I used to walk all the time