Runners complete a marathon inside abandoned Dorchester Prison

‘Prisoners’ were on the loose in a decommissioned jail this weekend as part of the UK’s only marathon inside a prison.

Originally built in the 1800s, Dorset’s Dorchester Prison has been closed since 2014.

But the corridors were teeming once again when 135 runners completed 55 laps, totalling 26.2 miles, around the prison complex.

Some embraced the venue’s theme by donning black and white stripy prison uniforms, while others dressed up as police.

One participant stripped down instead, wearing little more than an orange mankini to take on the 9,000 steps around the gangways and yard.

The first batch of runners were set loose on Saturday morning, while a second lot took on the bigger challenge of doing it after dark with torches on their head.

Organiser Jay McCardle, with Sussex Trail Events, said: ‘It went really well, we had 80 runners in the day marathon and 55 in the evening.

‘We look for something a bit left-field – we have done a marathon in a multi-storey car park and on Southend Pier before.

‘We have got a die-hard following. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

‘You can run a marathon anywhere but this is much more of a mental challenge than it is physical.

‘There’s 174 steps per lap and they have to do that 55 times so there is going to be some sore quads today.’

The marathon brought some much needed use to the Victorian prison a decade after it closed.

Planned redevelopment has been stalled by bodies buried in the ground.

Among them is Martha Brown, who inspired Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

The last woman hanged in public in Dorset, Brown was executed at the prison in 1856 for the murder of her abusive husband.

A 16-year-old Hardy was present for her execution.

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