Heads up with a 4-1 chiplead, what would you do?

[TonyS0pran0]

Ok, so I am sitting at stars heads up in a $50 NL tournament. The difference between 1st and 2nd is only $1600, nothing significant. You are dealt A8s in the BB, your opponent raises 3x bb to 36000 1/4 his stack. He has done this a few times previously and I popped him back and he folded everytime. So anyway my thinking here is small pair or KQ KJ etc. so I push. He flips over 33 and I hit 8 on flop. My friend insists I was wrong to do this even though I won. My thinking is any Ace is pretty tough heads up and even if I lose this I am still in the lead. With the structure the way it is at stars you can't sit around and wait at the end, you have to play aggresively. What would you have done?