Where to run
Running in Zurich
Zurich puts a lake at one end of the city, a river through the middle and forest on every hill around it. You can be on a gravel forest road, four hundred metres above the water, twenty minutes after leaving the office.
The ground
What running in Zurich is actually like
The lake surface is at about 406 metres and the city sits at the point where the Limmat leaves it. Everything along the water and the river is flat and paved.
The hills are the reason people run here. The Uetliberg tops out at 871 metres on the west side, so a climb from the lake is roughly four hundred and fifty metres of gain, almost all of it on forest paths. East of the city the Zürichberg and the Adlisberg carry more woodland, and north the Käferberg and the Hönggerberg do the same. South, the Sihl valley runs deep into the Sihlwald forest.
The practical consequence is that Zurich has no need for a treadmill. The forest roads are wide, well drained and signposted, and the trams and S-Bahn reach the bottom of all of them.
Routes
Runs worth knowing in Zurich
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The Seebecken loop
Down the Utoquai on one side of the lake basin, across at the Quaibrücke and back up the Mythenquai on the other. Add the Zürichhorn and the Arboretum at either end. Flat, lit, and the run that fits between two meetings.
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The Limmat to Werdinsel
Follow the river downstream from the lake past the Platzspitz and the Letten, then on through Höngg to the island at Werdinsel. Car-free for most of its length and one of the few genuinely flat long runs in the city.
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Up the Uetliberg
Start at Albisgüetli or Triemli and climb through the woods to the ridge at 871 metres. Every gradient exists here, from a graded gravel road to a steep direct path, and the railway runs back down to the city if you have had enough.
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The ridge to Felsenegg
From the top of the Uetliberg the ridge path continues south along the crest, in forest almost the whole way, with the lake below on one side. The cable car at Felsenegg means you can run it as a point to point rather than an out and back.
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Zürichberg and the Adlisberg
Forest roads above Fluntern and the Dolder, easy underfoot and easy to loop. The default evening run for the east side of the city, and the one that stays runnable when the ridge is icy.
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The Sihl and the Sihlwald
Upstream along the Sihl out of the city and into the protected forest of the Sihlwald in the valley bottom. The railway follows the valley, so you can run out as far as you feel like and take the train home.
Season
Cold, fog below, sun above
Winter is properly cold and the forest tracks hold snow and ice for weeks at a time. Studded shoes are not an eccentricity here between December and February.
The other winter fact is the inversion. Fog sits in the valley and on the lake basin for days, while the Uetliberg ridge above it is in sunshine. Locals run up out of the grey on purpose, and the difference in temperature at the top is sometimes upward, not downward.
Summer is warm and humid with thunderstorms building over the hills in the late afternoon, which is why the lake swimming spots are full at seven in the evening. Autumn is the best of it: dry forest, long light and clear air.
The app
How Waypath fits a Zurich week
Swiss trails in the catalogue
Waypath's trail catalogue is rebuilt from OpenStreetMap, which is the same data behind most Swiss walking route maps, so the waymarked paths on the Uetliberg and in the Sihlwald are already in it.
Climb, measured honestly
Every activity carries its climb profile, and grade-adjusted pace shows what a forest ascent was worth compared with a flat lap of the Seebecken.
Club runs that people turn up to
Put the Thursday session on a club calendar with a meeting point, and see who is coming before you leave the house.
Keep reading
More places, and how the app works
Run it, then share the link.
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