It is a horrid July day, 100 degrees by noontime and wildfire smoke settling in the Valley like bad tule fog.

Out of the acrid mist comes a mirage in running shoes. Mark Restrepo, Davis resident and insurance underwriter just back from vacationing in Canada, is at the end of a midday jog – in his neighborhood cemetery.

"I usually walk through the cemetery, and I pray while I walk," he says, dripping sweat. "To me, it's a nice way to end my run."

Restrepo regularly catches his spiritual breath in the old Davis Cemetery. Some people might find it an odd place to do so, but historic, gardenlike graveyards, with their old shade trees and broad roadways, are ideal for a walk or a run that is truly off the beaten path.

In fact, the July 26 inaugural City of Sacramento 5K Championship, a part of the Alzheimer's Aid Society Memorial 5K Run/Walk, will start and end in East Lawn Memorial Park (with the bulk of the race course along nearby M Street).

"You have to do something different to make it fun for local runners, and we hope people won't be weirded out," says race director Rich Hanna, who expects more than 800 participants. "It's a beautiful spot for pre- and post-race. The nice thing is that, in that last mile, the 'residents' don't care that we're doing the race, like neighbors sometimes do. They're really good about it."

Hanna grew up two blocks from East Lawn, and the cemetery was on his training route when he ran cross-country for Sacramento High School.

Early mornings and late evenings often find folks from the immediate neighborhood taking their "daily constitutional" in East Lawn. The same holds true for people who live near three other old neighborhood cemeteries: Sacramento Historic City Cemetery, the Fair Oaks Cemetery in Fair Oaks and Davis Cemetery.

"It's not for everybody. Some people don't like cemeteries," says Jackie Iris, who coordinates the city of Sacramento's Neighborhood Walks program for ages 50-plus and hopes to revive twice-weekly morning walks at Sacramento Historic City Cemetery. (For information, call Kim Metcalf at 916-808-1593.)

"The old city cemetery is not your traditional cemetery," Iris says. "It's up-and-down and rolling. It's a Victorian garden with not just headstones, but statues that go back to the 1800s. I like it because it's pretty in there, and it's safe, hardly any cars. There's always something flowering throughout the year, always something for you to see."

Sacramento Historic City Cemetery

The Sacramento Historic City Cemetery was established in 1849, and the efforts of preservationists and gardening volunteers over the years have made it into a 28-acre urban Eden.

To wander its winding roads is to step into the past and momentarily forget you're near a busy crossroads with public housing on one side and a large store on the other. Beautiful statuary rises above well-tended graves that are planted in everything from irises to geraniums and heritage roses. Cedar, palm and redwood trees offer scattered shade. Benches offer respite.

Docents regularly lead free, themed tours of the old cemetery. For a schedule, call (916) 448-0811 or go to www.oldcitycemetery.com.

The cemetery is the final resting place for such notables as Sacramento founder John A. Sutter Jr. and its first elected mayor, Hardin Bigelow. Among the grandest of the private mausoleums is that of Mark Hopkins, one of the financiers of the Transcontinental Railroad. A more modest plot holds the remains of Judge E.B. Crocker and his widow, Margaret, who gave their vast art collection and gallery to the city. It's now the Crocker Art Museum.

Newton Booth, onetime California governor, is buried here. Interestingly, East Lawn Memorial Park was built on the site of his 40-acre Twin Oaks Farm.

East Lawn

Bigger and flatter than the city cemetery, East Lawn claims to have the place of highest elevation in all of Sacramento. It's beneath William Land's cabin-size mausoleum. Land was a local hotelier who gave the city $250,000 to establish what's now called William Land Park. He died in 1911 and is buried with his wife and their young son.

Call The Bee's Dixie Reid, (916) 321-1134.