LUCEDALE, Miss. (AP) — A triathlete court clerk chased down a fleeing man who had run out of a courtroom after asking a judge to let him kiss his wife before being taken into custody.

George County Judge Robert Krebs gave 26-year-old John Samuel Bond permission to say goodbye to his wife Thursday morning. The newspaper reports Bond then fled the courtroom and was pursued by deputies and Clerk Chad Welford, who is training for a 70.3-mile triathlon.

Welford says he chased the fugitive until Bond “ran out of gas.” Welford then kept an eye on him until authorities arrived to take him into custody.

The newspaper reports Bond was in court on a grand larceny charge. He now is also charged with resisting arrest and fleeing.