Cameron Brown rolled back the years, hoisting himself to the top of the podium again at Saturday's Port of Tauranga Half.
But it'll be the middle of the week at least before he does the same with the bandages to check on the sorry state of his feet.
Brown, 39, held off a gutsy challenge from Callum Millward to win his ninth men's title (first in five years) in one of the closest finishes in history, with just 36 seconds separating them, but was reduced to a geriatric hobble over the closing 150m nursing his raw and bleeding feet to the finish.
New Zealand's distance star collapsed over the line, gingerly removing crimson-stained shoes to reveal golf-ball-sized blisters that were quickly cut away by a paramedic and bandaged.
Brown will use the win as a springboard towards defending his Ironman New Zealand title in March, hoping his raw feet recover in time.
"Those are some serious blisters, and having never had blisters before I got them in Taupo [last month] obviously the skin never grew back tough enough and has broken away fairly easily today.
"I did it tough in that last 2km and don't know what shape I would have been in if it had come down to a sprint."
Brown was a minute down on the leading group out of the water, with German Olympic distance athlete Sean Donnelly and Millward dictating terms at the pointy end, although Brown and 2010 race winner Michael Poole reeled in the leading pair by mid-race and poured on the pressure over the second 45km lap.
Donnelly faded badly on the second lap and eventually withdrew on the run, while Poole cramped early on the run, eventually calling it a day.
That left Brown and Millward to slug it out, with the pair going stride-for-stride until the final loop around the Mount's uneven base track, when the wily Brown took it up a notch.
"I'd tried to to put some hurt on Callum on the bike to take some zap out of his legs - he got me at Taupo four weeks ago, so I wanted to get him back."
Brown knows Mauao's undulations better than anyone but didn't have a set plan of where he wanted to attack to test Millward's mettle.
"That was the plan, to push a bit around the Mount and get away, but you just never know what shape someone's in.
"I could hear his breathing right on my shoulder and sensed it was a bit higher than mine but we're all breathing through our arses by that stage anyway.
"About halfway around I applied the pressure and once a gap opened I took it and pushed away. I've never been involved in such a close finish, running the best part of 20km with someone in the lead, so hopefully [the duel] was fantastic for the race and created a bit of a show."
Millward, 29, was pipped last year by Graham O'Grady, only to be elevated to the win after O'Grady's failed drugs test.
Millward is fast taking over from Nathan Richmond as the king of the one-liners.
"We stayed neck and neck all the way around the Mount, so I hung in there as long as possible to at least give myself a fighter's chance... although I would loved to have thrown the first punch if I could."
And the mental war being waged as he slugged it out with Brown? "I need to harden up a little bit . .. There were a lot of Dr Phil moments I had with myself, but I tried to hang in there and quiet my mind. It was a rollercoaster of emotions - hard, then easy, then hard again."
And what about the moment Brown kicked and moved away?
"I sensed Cam wouldn't let it come down to sprint finish and at 16 or 17km he started tightening the screws, exponentially increasing the pace until it got too much and I pulled the eject cord. I'd been planning to make my move but never got the chance to fire a shot."
Aussie Tim Berkel, 26, was third, seven minutes off the pace, ruing poor swim form. Berkel was 14th out of the water, 2 minutes behind Millward, but quickly fell out of contention when he couldn't make up the time on the ride, with a considerable lack of Anzac spirit on display.
"I had 10 Kiwis with me and no-one would help me, yet the top three boys were working together well. I knew halfway through the run, when Cam and Callum's lead went from 3:10 to 6 minutes, that it was all over.
"I've worked so hard on my swim in the last four weeks yet still had a dog swim. "
Brown will be back to chase title No 10 next year, aged 40.
No-one is writing him off, least of all Millward. "At 39 years old Cam still goes pretty good."