British Master 2008 - Birmingham

Traveled to Birmingham for the British championships, hoping for a good trace in the hurdles and then seeing what I had left for 2 400 races. The hurdles went very well despite a very strong wind that hit me at 300m.
My coach Howard smashed the M50 WR in the race before me and came straight over to advise on what my stride pattern should be (never mind that he'd just knocked a second of the record!
Anyway 17s to 3, 16s to 5 was the plan meaning just one left leg lead on the 4th hurdles.

Unfortunately the World champion, Neil Tunstall had to drop out through illness, but they had put the M35s in my race so had some competition.
Ran well to 4, landed clumsily after a left leg lead so more to work on. 5-8 went well then chopped back a bit over 9 and 10. Went to 19 strides when I should have put in a left leg lead at 9 which would have helped me finish faster. anyway, sprinted off the last hurdle to take gold in 58.68. Very pleased in the conditions.
Luckily they decided not to hold heats for the 400 flat and held A and B finals with the medals decided on times. I was in the A final with Kermit Bentham and Tony Noel. The B final was won in 54 so we knew what the target was.
I had a slow first 100 then picke d up in the second and 3rd. Came of the bend in 3rd and moved into 2nd feeling strong. Kermit however was on fire and I couldn't catch him He won in 52.3 I finished in 53.09 (Best for the season so far). Considering the conditions we will both go a lot quicker in Slovenia. But we will need to with the top German looking like a sub 51 runner.
Three weeks to go and lots of work to do!