I’ve always considered it quite normal in the world of running to get training in at a local graveyard.
When I used to travel frequently for work, it was tough to plan out local runs prior to arrival. This was back when we were still printing out pages from Mapquest to get around, and I wasn’t able to just pull up an app with a repository of popular running routes.
Graveyards were an easy solution. They had very little foot traffic, simple walking paths, no automobiles or bikes, and covered large areas of land in the middle of a city. Not a bad option at all if you’re looking for a place to run.
In some parts of Europe it is a common sight to see a few picnickers in cemeteries. In some areas it's the only green space they have. My wife is from Lithuania. I gleaned this info from her.
Also, as an aside my wife says in a back corner of many of the cemeteries there are piles of old head stones. Most of which have Hebrew engravings. When the Nazis came thru they not only murdered all the Jews the could find, but also tried to erase any sign they had ever been there.
Sorry for dragging on, but a second aside. Something many folks may have never heard before. Lithuania is the largest Holocaust burial ground in Europe. Approx. 2,000,000 Jews, Poles, Gypsy's, Homosexuals, ect, ect. are buried there. This occurred before the Final Solution, gas chambers, and crematoriums came into play. These early Holocaust Victims were trucked from their homes, driven to a field in front of a deep trench, ordered to strip, were shot in the back or back of head. The Germans tried to line them up so they'ed fall into the pit.
Sometimes that didn't happen. So the next poor soul about to get shot was ordered to throw the slain person in to the pit. The Germans did this everyday, about 5,000 a day in various locations in Lithuania.
The two I ran on had Security Guards and I was politely asked to leave both times. Even though it was early morning, I was told I might upset mourners. So many other places for me to run so I left.