Andy Murray woke up after four hours' sleep, glanced at his tennis gold medal and realised it was not a dream, he had won the Olympics.
Four weeks after his Wimbledon final heartbreak, Murray turned the tables on Roger Federer in spectacular fashion to win the men's singles title 6-2 6-1 6-4, while he also picked up a surprise silver medal in mixed doubles with Laura Robson.
Murray said: "It feels good. I'm a little bit tired, I didn't get much sleep last night but it was an amazing feeling to wake up and realise that it's not a dream, it's actually happened."
He added: "I felt weirdly calm afterwards. I can't remember exactly what I was thinking in those moments, maybe I couldn't believe it had happened. It's still sinking in now. I'm looking forward to just lying down, having a few moments to myself and taking it all in."
Murray followed in the footsteps of some of the biggest names in tennis as he climbed up to the players' box on Centre Court to celebrate with his friends and family, including girlfriend Kim Sears and mum Judy. On Sunday night the Scot headed over to the Olympic Park for some well-earned relaxation.
He said: "I had my parents there, Leon Smith, who was one of my first coaches when I was 12 years old, through to the guys that I work with now. It was cool, it makes all of the work that you've done over the years feel worth it.
"There's a lot of people who've been involved in my career and a lot of them were there yesterday so it was nice to get to spend not only the moment winning with them but the evening afterwards as well."
Murray was also congratulated by his fellow players, who have watched him strive so hard for a first major title, and he revealed he received a message from Beijing gold medallist Rafael Nadal, who was forced to miss London through injury.
Along with Britain's other gold medallists, Murray now has a stamp bearing his picture and a postbox in his home town of Dunblane was painted gold.
The Scot said: "I saw the stamp last night. I heard the story about the postbox and didn't know whether it was true but I just saw a picture of it this morning, so it's quite cool. They're the sort of things that come with the big titles so it's a nice perk."