\u2022 I signed up for the prison Parkrun with convicted killers<\/a><\/p>\n It was just before Christmas 2020 when I finally got my \u201ctransfer\u201d to Hollesley Bay, an \u201copen prison\u201d on the Suffolk coast, near Rendlesham Forest and Orford Ness. Open, or category D, jails are very different from what most people imagine a prison to be. Hollesley Bay, spread across 85 acres of fields and scrubby woodlands, has no wall or high fences. Prisoners live in accommodation blocks more like 1980s provincial university halls of residence than a typical prison wing. I lived in Stow House, a low, wide building with a communal eating and lounge area, a laundry room, and four \u201cspurs\u201d, corridors with half a dozen rooms down both sides. We each had a key to our own room and weren\u2019t even locked in at night. Also, unlike at Wandsworth, I had plenty of time outside if I wanted. Sometimes it almost didn\u2019t feel like prison.<\/p>\n In normal circumstances we\u2019d also have been able to go on \u201ctown leave\u201d and \u201chome leave\u201d, opportunities to leave the prison and see our families for a few hours or even overnight. But this was during Covid so we were confined to the 85 acres.<\/p>\n On my first day at the jail they weighed me. Just over 80kg. Somehow I\u2019d lost a third of my weight in a year. For the first time in decades I looked in the mirror and thought I could do with putting some weight on. Unfortunately, although I was thin, I wasn\u2019t fit. As people are now learning with weight-loss jabs such as Mounjaro<\/a>, dramatic weight loss doesn\u2019t discriminate between fat and muscle. Soon after my arrival I tried to run outside. I hadn\u2019t gone 100 metres before I had to stop, gasping, lungs burning, legs shaking.<\/p>\n A sign at HMP Hollesley Bay<\/p>\n GEOGRAPHY PHOTOS\/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n That was my wake-up call. I\u2019d promised myself I\u2019d leave prison in better shape than I arrived. I knew that by Christmas 2021 I\u2019d be out. I had to start training; I had to get fit. At least I had time \u2014 there\u2019s always time in prison. I also had 85 acres to run around. And then I found someone to help me.<\/p>\n \u201cCharlie\u201d was my neighbour, occupying the room opposite mine. He was tall \u2014 I\u2019m 6ft 1in and he towered over me \u2014 and incredibly fit, muscles untroubled by a hint of fat. He would do hundreds of press-ups and sit-ups as though they were nothing. Charlie always led our spur in workouts, encouraging the other men, cheering them on as they struggled to complete exercises he found trivial.<\/p>\n When I mentioned my plans to get fit, Charlie offered to run with me. He never complained when I stopped to walk, even though he hadn\u2019t broken a sweat and even if it was the tenth time that day. We\u2019d run until I was out of breath, walk until I\u2019d recovered and then run again. Through that cold, snowy winter we trained together every day. When I didn\u2019t want to go out, when the cold and wet deterred me, Charlie was kind but insistent. He wouldn\u2019t let me slack.<\/p>\n![\"Sign](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/f152fbdb-1650-45de-a115-e3c13d9ae588.jpg\")
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