Hi, so I’m going to write about a run I did while on a work trip to Zurich, Switzerland. I think this run is very fitting for WorkTripRunning because it ticks all the boxes I hope my WorkTripRunning posts will (and I know some won’t). It’s on trail (my gold standard in places to run), it’s within running distance of a city (hence work trips) and it can be modified to shorter or longer distances. For Zurich, I am going to write about my run in Dolder Park. Check out the route here on my Strava account, the gpx file should be available there for download.
Getting There
I ran here while training for the Schwartzwald marathon back in 2016, I needed to do ~25km, I started at about 7am and was staying on Dufourstrasse, just a block East of the lake. From my door I ran uphill (seriously incline) for about 2.5km along Faerberstrasse, Ottenweg and then Klosbachstrasse and Rutistrasse. I didn’t stop to look at google maps much, generally I kept going as straight as possible and always uphill! You are running from city streets into neighborhoods and gradually the houses fade into trees. 
With gasps for air I reached Dolder park! So that was 2.2km of climbing from Lake Zurich to reach this scene (picture below), trees and trail.
I’m going to continue to describe my run which totaled about 26KM but this park is only 2.2km from Zurich center so you could easily get a post-work 10km of delicious tree-filled freedom here to clear your head before meeting colleagues/clients for dinner, or fit it in before work in the morning. In fact, I will detail at the end of this post how you can shorted my route into an 11km run.
From entering the park, for me, it was make it up as you go along and keep going for about 20km up here. The trails were quiet, I came across about 3 or four trail runners and a couple of early morning walkers. I found some marked routes shown in the photo below and I followed them a bit. The photo also serves to show the type of trail we are dealing with here, more gravel path than dirt singletrack.
I saw this huge log and it just looked like it was reaching out for a hug. So of course I obliged!
I am adding another picture (right) to show more of the trail, trail markers (seen in the middle of the photo in yellow) and the scenery you should expect in this park. I should add that I felt perfectly safe running alone here, with one exception! I heard what seriously sounded like whooping and schreeching of primates in the trees around me. Now that freaked the hell out of me! Turns out I was very close to the Zoo! I will admit I got lost in this park, but that was kind of my intention. The plan was reach the park, go in, run ~20km taking whatever route appeals most and then make my way out.
I had phone signal throughout and so I was able to look on googlemaps to see routes, I didn’t know about ViewRanger back then but I just checked and yes, as you can see here, ViewRanger has detailed maps of the trails in this park, incidentally it calls the area Hottingen, perhaps Dolder park is in Hottingen.
I wrote more about ViewRanger in WorkTripRunning Oslo, Norway.
OK lets take a quick look at my route, as mentioned above you can get the gpx file from strava here or just look at the images I have copies below.
In this image I am focusing on the blue dot which is in the middle of the map, it is showing where I was at 3.4km into the run, I then turned right and did a big loop out to the right as you can see here. If you wanted to shorted then run you could cut out this loop which was 7.8km.
The last thing I want to highlight about my route is this smaller loop which I repeated 3 times (I did say I got lost!), the two images below look identical but if you look at the elevation profile at the bottom of the images you can see that one image is at 11.2km into the run, when I begin this loop for the first time and the second image is at 14.3km when I begin the look for the second time. So, this loop is on 3.1km long, and it is only ~4km back to the lake so add them together and you have a nice ~11km run in the forest on trail to really spice up your work trip!
Coming soon, WorkTripRunning Basel, Switzerland and, because I’m not travelling for work right now, my hometown, Dublin, Ireland!
Work Trip Running 