Life in the Godzone: No pain, no gain

Hope you're not reading this over breakfast folks because this delightful specimen:

really is Dave's toenail and as you can see it is clearly not attached to his toe. However, it was lost in a good cause, which was the attainment of this:

Said toenail had been hanging on by a thread since the Auckland Iron Man on 20th January but Dave detached it last night after I'd gone to sleep and, proud of his achievement, kept it next to the bed so he could share it with me first thing this morning. Yay! Romance is not dead. He also showed it to Tilly and told her he'd been wondering if the Toenail Fairy would have left some money under his pillow overnight. Tilly was aghast. 'Don't be silly! Everyone knows it's only the Tooth Fairy that is true!'

To return to the Iron Man, Dave had been hoping to better his time from the Hawke's Bay race last year and he might well have done had another competitor not collapsed in front of him during the cycle stage and required CPR in the road. It emerged later that as well as cracking his cheek bones, the chap had suffered a heart attack, but he timed it well because he ended up with two doctors and an intensive care nurse keeping him alive until the ambulance turned up. Dave still hasn't got all the blood out of his bike shoes, but well done - aren't you useful?

Here are a few shots of Dave during the race.

Heading off to the bike after completing the swim

On the bike with the Harbour Bridge in the background

Done it! 1.9km swim, 90km bike, 21.1km run.

As if that were not enough sporting glory for one weekend, the previous day Reuben and Tilly had officially become Iron Kids after completing a 750m run. Reuben was definitely up for the challenge; Tilly however was overcome with nerves.

Shortly after this photo was taken, she was clinging like a limpet to any available adult leg and had to be dragged to the start despite full scale bribery efforts with jelly beans. Then the starting hooter went and she was all smiles as you can see: