European masters - 400m Hurdles M45 Final

The big one. Neil in 4, me in 5. Which is to his advantage.
Everyone is pumped up on the indoor warm up track. Not a lot of talking, plenty of glances at how people are warming up, but nothing given away. 25 mins before the race we are taken into the call room. a tent at the end of the track that is backing hot. (its in the 30s outside).
I went off hard, 17s to 3, 16s to 5 and although Neil caught up by 4, we were still level at 6.

I knew at this point that if I could stay level with Neil I could take him in the last 40m so adopted a conservative pattern for the last 4 hurdles. This did mean 10 was dreadful, but then it was for both of us. Neil touched down slightly ahead, but I was able to sprint past in the run in.
Gold in 57.84, my best for 2 years (and equaling my PB from pre-masters days)