A Bungay Black Dog Running Club trip to take on the annual Mablethorpe Marathon and Half Marathon on Sunday almost left its 19 runners plus supporters stranded 30 miles short of the start line when the coach on which they were travelling suffered a puncture en route.

Having left Bungay at 4am to make the journey and feeling, well, a little deflated, club captain Tom Pullinger flagged down a passing potential replacement.

A hasty phone call led to rescue by a local operator and the day was saved with just minutes to spare.

Two of the contingent tackled the marathon, with Tom Pullinger coming in 63rd in three hours 38 minutes and one second while Robin Farrar was 175th in 04:51:50.

In the half marathon the men’s team of Marcus Sladden, Dale Skoulding and Simon Cowley were runners-up, pipped by just one point from winning.

The full results were: 5 Marcus Sladden 01:19:59, 14 Dale Skoulding 01:25:57, 16 Simon Cowley 01:26:44, 47 Richard Dye 01:37:41, 52 Shaun Button 01:38:44, 53 John Wharton 01:39:28, 83 Stuart Lawn 01:44:33, 107 Alice Kirk 01:47:01, 133 Jo Walker 01:49:38, 135 Imogen Snelling 01:49:39, 139 Graham Sampson 01:51:06, 235 Ken Hurst 02:03:55, 262 Loretta Thurston 02:08:09, 263 Douglas Gladwin 02:09:00, 275 Larisssa Smith 02:10:46, 337 Lucy Johnston 02:28:04 and 338 Emma-Jane Cowley 02:28:04.

Graham Sampson was in for a double celebration, achieving a personal best time at Mablethorpe having completed his 100th Parkrun at Gorleston Cliffs on Saturday, the 10th anniversary of the Parkrun itself.

Out and about elsewhere at the weekend, the club’s Robin Ashe took advantage of what he described as “perfect weather” in Oxford to complete the Hanney 5-mile in 41:13 while John Wiles took part in the Glasgow’s Great Scottish Run half marathon “as a relaxing training run” finishing in 01:31:14.

Ian Taylor was, meanwhile, running his fourth marathon in as many weeks – his 133rd overall – in the Channel Islands where, having already ticked the Guernsey event off his list, he completed the Jersey Marathon in 123rd place among 363 finishers in a time of 3:49:38.