Rob Sloan boasted he’d completed an “unbelievably tough” marathon near Newcastle after crossing the finish line in third place with a personal-best time.

Apparently, he didn’t count the bus ride.

Sloan dropped out 20 miles into the race, hitched a ride on a spectator shuttle bus and emerged from the woods near the finish line to make the podium. After Sloan initially described as “laughable” claims he cheated in the Kielder Marathon on Sunday, the 31-year-old former army mechanic admitted his transgression following an investigation by organizers. “People in cars following the bus saw him get on and off. People saw him run through the bushes ― we had him hook, line and sinker,” Dave Roberts, one of the marathon organizers, said on Wednesday. (AP)