Coaches: team workouts on cemetary roads...disrespectful?

Why don't you try that at Arlington and see what happens?

It's not disrespectful to the dead. It's disrespectful to the living. If I go to visit my father's grave, I don't really feel like listening to your workout.

Short answer: yes.

grave visitor wrote:

It's not disrespectful to the dead. It's disrespectful to the living. If I go to visit my father's grave, I don't really feel like listening to your workout.

This is the right way to think about the problem. The dead are just that: dead. As such, there is no way to offend them. It's the living you ought to be more concerned about.

No way. Most cemeteries are grave yards, pun intended. Nobody is ever there.

I'd avoid active burials of course but otherwise who cares if a few guys run by?

I'd be pleased if I knew some runners were keeping grandpa company on occasion.

Not a problem my team has been doing a hill workout in a cemetery for years. Never had a complaint. Keep it quiet, keep kids off the graves and on the road, and stay away from funerals and it should be fine.

Actually a great question. I run solo there all the time, but even then am sure to keep the spitting, hunters blow thing,…to a minumum if people are visiting sites. Having a whole team running around in there (talking, laughing, shouting, goofing…) might be a bit sketchy? idk

Depends on the cemetery and it depends on the particular circumstance - how are the runners acting, how loud are they, are they near anyone who is there to visit a a loved one's headstone/plot, is there a burial going on, etc.

It could be disrespectful in some circumstances, but not others.

I think it's fine to run a route that goes through a cemetery as long as you avoid any people and just don't draw attention to yourself. Doing intervals and yelling out splits etc would probably end up upsetting somebody.

Obadiah Poundage wrote:

I think it's fine to run a route that goes through a cemetery as long as you avoid any people and just don't draw attention to yourself. Doing intervals and yelling out splits etc would probably end up upsetting somebody.

Very reasonable post.

Yes, absolutely. Running through a graveyard to get somewhere is one thing. Running workouts there is another.

If you do it, you will get calls or confronted by some very angry people. I would.

For what it's worth, my high school's home cross country course was in a cemetery, albeit through a part that was not yet being used as such. Our coach at the time worked there summers. I don't think they use that course anymore.

In college I was asked (politely enough) not to run through a particular cemetery near campus.

There is a cemetery near my current home which I have passed through on occasion, but I don't make habit of it. As an early morning runner there is virtually never anyone around.

As a general rule, I'd say passing through is ok if the common sense in respecting the sensibilities of other visitors is applied. I wouldn't do workouts, particularly team workouts without the explicit approval of the cemetery management and I expect it would be very unusual circumstances under which that would be given.

It doesn't bother me.

I don't understand why we take someone's decaying corpse, dress it up in a nice suit, put makeup on it to make it look more alive, then place it in a fancy wooden box with silk lining and bury it under the ground.

Seriously, people do that stuff to their grandma's dead body and then they think I'm the weirdo for doing a tempo run on the cemetary roads? I'm just being practical, there is almost no traffic there, you know? I don't want to be hit by a car and end up in fancy box like your grandma, buddy, so that's why I'm running on this road, hear me??

Sometimes cemeteries are the only safe place to run in winter when there is snow.

The dead will rise wrote:

If I take my team and do a workout on the roads in a cemetery, is it considered disrespecting the dead?

Cemeteries and golf course are secret gems for running. In both places, you need to keep a low profile, avoid certain areas and don't leave anything behind. - Be respectful, which is how you should treat any place you run.

Cemeteries are very popular. People are dying to get there.

No, it isn't disrespectful.

My high school had no track so we ran quarters around a section of the local graveyard. II went on to break my first 5 minute mile there and ran a lot faster based on those loops. That was 27 years ago and the kids still do it today. As for the dead, not one complaint has ever been received but the track program, such as it is, is still alive.

It seems a most appropriate place for team workouts. I'm sure your gastly forms aren't even noticed there.

It seems a most appropriate place for team workouts. I'm sure your gastly forms aren't even noticed there.