As I lace up my running shoes and set out on the tranquil paths of Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery, I can't help but feel surrounded by history. It's a place where the peaceful rest of icons like Rick James and President Millard Fillmore merges with the living pulse of runners seeking solitude and reflection.
I share guidelines for runners to engage with the cemetery's beauty and tranquility responsibly, by honoring unspoken rules and the explicit ones. Doing a bit of homework ensures we safeguard the privilege of their use, keeping the paths open for our reflective runs.
If you are looking for a coach to help you reach your running goals, even if it's just to start to run, take a look at my Coaching Services page on the website. I do virtual, in-person (Buffalo, NY area) and also offer single zoom sessions for those would just like to chat with a coach one time.
As I lace up my running shoes and set out on the tranquil paths of Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery, I can't help but feel surrounded by history. It's a place where the peaceful rest of icons like Rick James and President Millard Fillmore merges with the living pulse of runners seeking solitude and reflection.
I share guidelines for runners to engage with the cemetery's beauty and tranquility responsibly, by honoring unspoken rules and the explicit ones. Doing a bit of homework ensures we safeguard the privilege of their use, keeping the paths open for our reflective runs.
If you are looking for a coach to help you reach your running goals, even if it's just to start to run, take a look at my Coaching Services page on the website. I do virtual, in-person (Buffalo, NY area) and also offer single zoom sessions for those would just like to chat with a coach one time.
If you have any running-related questions, please send an email to sherry@wrinkledrunner.com…I answer every one.
Speaker 1:
So I have been trying to cover some different topics when it comes to running. There are so many podcasts that kind of go over the same things and that that I won't and that that I haven't. Sometimes there's some weird things that I'm going to cover just because it's a little different, and today we are going to talk about running in cemeteries. So for those of you who follow this podcast, you know that I live in Buffalo and a question comes up with my athletes from time to time the in-person ones, regarding running in cemeteries. So that's what I'm going to talk about today. So I live in the city and close to Forest Lawn Cemetery. So if you're from Buffalo, you got to know Forest Lawn Cemetery. It's a huge cemetery. It's off of Delaware, it goes all the way to Main Street and there are people there like Rick James. If you're old enough to know who that is, he is the super freak singer. President Millard Fillmore is buried there, not to be confused with President William McKinley, who was assassinated here in Buffalo. But President Millard Fillmore is buried here in Forest Lawn Cemetery. Another famous person buried there is Willis Haveland Carrier, who invented modern air conditioning. So we can thank him for that. So I'm going to link you to several resources about the history of the place, if that's your thing. Now I'm kind of. I'm not a history buff, but I do like history and the house I live in is very, very old and so I like to research. I wish the guy who built this house was buried in Forest Lawn so I could visit him. As morbid as that may be, I did find out where he's buried and someday I probably will go and visit him. But he died in this house. His funeral was in this house, and I don't know. It's just pretty cool. We had some renovations done and we have a third floor. It was used as an apartment for a lot of years but we transformed it into like a media room and another bedroom and whatever, and so we had that popcorn ceiling scraped off and they had to dig a hole. No, they had to put a hole in the ceiling to get up into the attic above the third floor and they actually found a corset and it had. Someone had sewn it together. It must have ripped at some point, and the houses in Buffalo a lot of them on the third floor is where the help would be would live, and so they'd have back staircases, that they would go down and they'd have kitchens in the basement and you know all these, all these things from back in the early 1900s, and so they found a corset there. So I have that and it's I don't know. I just like that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:
So, running in cemeteries, I run through forest lawn a lot, actually, and I have the clients that live in Buffalo I have them do that too. There's a lot of hills in there, and so they can run either their hill sprints or if they're doing some rolling hills or whatever. So, anyway, the cemetery has 269 acres. Not only myself, but track teams from high schools and colleges. They also do some of their workouts there as well, but what is the etiquette of it? So should runners and cyclists be using the space as a workout area? So what I have found is that that depends.
Speaker 1:
I've run in New York City and hesitated and ultimately decided not to run in some of the cemeteries that I have come across, because I didn't do my homework, so I didn't know if there were rules or not in regards to that. Now, forest lawn happens to encourage the use of its park-like grounds for cycling, running, even picnics, and this is from the official website and their Facebook postings. So I'm not just like repeating something somebody said, who had nothing to do with it, in a random forum somewhere, but the facility itself. I guess you'd call it a facility or whatever. They encourage you to kind of use it in that way. So most of the time all I encounter is other runners or people walking around. I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually having a picnic there, but you know, teach their own, I guess.
Speaker 1:
So one of the things that you're gonna come across if you're going to run in a cemetery is people in mourning. You know you can usually tell the difference between somebody who is visiting a specific grave, because they know the person, versus, you know, going to see Rick James's grave or going to the president's grave or whatever. So I keep a close eye on my surroundings so that if somebody is visiting a site, I slow to a walk, give them lots of space, walk past where they are and don't start up again until I'm well beyond them. You know I don't wanna be like sprinting or working out or, you know, doing something really intense, treating it as like it's just another track, because it absolutely is not, and even though it's an old cemetery and there are a lot of people there that are famous or whatever. It is still a working cemetery and anybody can be buried there, so you just never know who you're gonna come across.
Speaker 1:
And what they do in the cemetery is they post some signs sort of near the entrance and when you hear the bells tolling, that means that a funeral procession is about to come in or is coming in and they want you to stop and you know, be respectful. So they don't want you like running through Dodging cars or whatever if the procession is coming through. So they have you hang back, and I think that's a really good system that they have put in place, because I think most people Want to be respectful in that. So it's privately owned and they have several other cemeteries in the area and so they are allowed to. You know, put up their own rules about public use. Now other cemeteries With, such as Arlington National Cemetery is a military cemetery and while you're allowed to walk and explore, you're not allowed to cycle or run or picnic or actually have any food there. They also note that if you're there and a flag is involved in the ceremony, as you draw near to place your hand over your heart. So if you come across the cemetery while you're on a run and you want to run in it and there's no posted signs as to what the rules are, stop and check out the website or Don't venture in until you can do so and do a little bit of homework on that, just so that you can be respectful. You know, you don't want to be the person on next door being filmed Doing something in a cemetery that you're not supposed to be running in or working out in.
Speaker 1:
So there's a cemetery in Oregon that has trails running through it and people are allowed to run and walk through, but signs have gone up alerting runners to the fact that it is still a cemetery, not a training ground. So apparently teams were going in there for some heavy workouts, like Massive, like big teams and the coaches were blowing whistles and just treating it like a track. Now, that is not acceptable, even in cemeteries that I think that allow running. You know blowing whistles and setting up sprints and a whole bunch of people like doing the same thing and blocking the road. In all the years that I've been running at Forest Lawn, I've never seen coaches or groups of runners do anything like that. Okay. So I mean read the room, you know it's not a track, it is a cemetery, and so, even though I might see groups of people or people who are clearly coaches and high school kids or college kids running, there's no like set up like cones or anything even close to some kind of strenuous workout and treating it just like training ground.
Speaker 1:
So in cemeteries that allow public use, obviously respect is going to go a long way. So avoid areas where mourners are gathered. Don't play loud music, don't litter. If you're running with a pet, make sure that your pet is allowed there too, and obviously it should go without saying that if your pet makes a mess, you need to clean it up. So since Forest Lawn has been a very long way, since Forest Lawn has some nice hills, I will write workouts for my clients that incorporate them, for those that can get there. It's a peaceful place with very little car traffic and it gives athletes an area for straight running with little to no stopping. So I did my homework and that is the best advice that I can give you Find out what a particular cemetery allows or doesn't allow, be respectful in ones that encourage running and Don't do anything to ruin it for other runners.