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A British woman who thought she can ignore road closure and drive through a marathon said she ‘regrets’ doing so.

The video below shows the moment the woman was pushing aside traffic cones but was quickly mobbed by joggers. The incident happened during Britain’s Ocean City Half Marathon. The footage was taken by eyewitness Rob Bricknell.

Joanna Pine, 67, said she ignored the road closure because she was late for a poetry class, but admitted her actions were ‘in some ways a stupid thing to do’. The retired physiotherapist and counsellor said she tried getting out various exits but all were closed.

Pine, who is disabled, was forced to stop by the throng of athletes taking part in the marathon. Pine said that in previous years she had been told where she could drive to avoid the race. But this year she had no such information. Below is her statement according to Metro:

‘In some ways it was a stupid thing to do, but I was trying to be careful and I felt trapped. ‘No one was listening to me or trying to help me. I was going at one mph and inching out. ‘I’d been really busy and had no information or leaflets put through my door and did not think about what time it was starting.

‘I came out at 8.45am to pick up a friend and go to a (writing) workshop in Okehampton. ‘The roads were closed and I was thinking “how am I going to get out?” I went down all the roads, some even the wrong way but every one was blocked – I was totally trapped. ‘There was no one there, no officials down there at all, so I got out and moved a couple of bollards.

‘I then slowly edged out a little bit to see how many runners were coming and no runners were coming down. ‘A gentleman came over and I thought he was a marshal. I was going to ask if there was an opportunity to get to the other side of the road and get to Exeter Street, but as I went to say that he aggressively said to stop the car and that I had no right to be there and didn’t want to listen to me.

‘He said he would take my keys, and he tried to open the car, but he turned out not to be an official.

‘I was just trying to look for a gap big enough to get across the road. ‘As I started to move I saw a gap and thought I could probably get across. ‘But I was surrounded by the public, they were abusive, banging the car, pushing the car, one guy kicked the car.

‘They caused potentially more problems than not. ‘These were all people watching, none of the runners took part in it.’ Ms Pine said she has not watched or read news reports since the incident – or viewed the many comments made about it on social media. She said she has learned from the incident but also said there had not been enough information for residents and the event needed ‘better marshalling’.

‘I have no interest (in the half marathon) and so why would I look it up?’ she said. ‘But if I had a leaflet saying the time it started I would have parked my car somewhere else and not been involved. ‘For me hindsight and reflection are a good thing and we learn,’ she said. ‘I was upset’.

Watch the video below