Black Magic, or Alchemy, not quite sure.

Winding my way up a gnarly steep badass(ish) climb this weekend, i had the pedal on my left foot, snap off and drop away,

"Cock", thinks I, as i sit on the needle strewn floor and snap the cleat free from my foot. "thats gonna put a damper on the weekends excitement"

however, the thread on the pedal, and the thread on the crank arm, were both in pristine condition.
the pedal screwed right in, no fuss, no complaining, no cross threading, like new.
the bearings on the pedal itself are smooth as you like, nearly buttery.
pedals are designed to tighten themselves as you pedal, i would certainly have noticed if my pedal was a cm over to the left when i went to clip in (and got the bike out the car, and had the cranks off the night before etc etc).
the climb itself was quuiiite long and steep, and this was at the top, so no backpedalling has been done in a long while

the queery i put to you.....

WTF?? (what the "frick")