The parkrun alphabet challenge means finishing a parkrun at an event whose name starts with each letter of the alphabet. There is no parkrun starting with X, so the goal is 25 letters. People who finish it call themselves "alphabeteers". The challenge is not run or awarded by parkrun. It is a community goal that people track themselves.
In Australia, most letters have plenty of events to choose from. Five letters are rare, and the two Z events are a long way apart. Where you live makes a big difference too. Someone in Brisbane has far more letters within 100km than someone in Sydney or Hobart.
How the challenge works
A finish counts for the first letter of the event's name. You can walk or run, and there is no time limit or set order. Some people pick up letters on holidays over many years. Others plan weekend trips around the letters they are missing.
The alphabet is one of several unofficial goals in parkrun's travelling community. The ABC reported on Australians chasing other goals too. These include the "pioneer" challenge (the first parkrun in every state and territory) and becoming a "statesperson" by finishing every event in one state. The ABC also noted that events starting with rare letters such as Y and Z have become tourist stops.
If parkrun is new to you, our parkrun guide explains the free Saturday 5km format first.
Which letter an event counts for
Because the challenge is unofficial, there is no rule book. This guide uses the event's name as parkrun lists it, not the suburb it sits in. That means Queen Elizabeth parkrun in Casino counts as Q, not C, and Ipswich QLD counts as I.
Six Australian events start with "The": The Beaches, The Ponds, The Terrace, The Entrance, The Avenues and The Phar Lap Track. Going by the event name, these count as T. You could instead skip "The" and use the next word. Pick the rule you want to follow before you start, so you don't have to recount later.
Common and rare letters in Australia
On 11 November 2026, parkrun's event map listed 549 Australian Saturday 5km events. We left out the 2km junior events held on Sundays. We then counted the 5km events by first letter. C (58 events), M (51) and B (49) are the easiest. Most other letters have at least ten events each.
These letters had the fewest Australian events:
- Z (2 events): Zillmere in Brisbane and Zeehan Golf Club on Tasmania's west coast.
- I (4 events): Inveresk Precinct (Launceston, Tasmania), Ipswich (Queensland), Inverell (NSW) and Inverloch (Victoria).
- Q (4 events): Quinns Rocks (Perth), Queanbeyan (NSW), Queens Domain (Hobart) and Queen Elizabeth Park in Casino (NSW).
- V (4 events): Varsity Lakes (Gold Coast), Victory Heights Trail (near Gympie, Queensland), Victory Road Reserve (Melbourne's south-east) and Victor Harbor (South Australia).
- U (5 events): Underwood Park (Logan, south of Brisbane), Urunga and Ulladulla (NSW), Umbagong District (Canberra) and University of Western Australia (Perth).
F (7 events) and Y (8 events) are also less common. Y includes Yeldulknie Weir Trail at Cleve on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. One runner told the ABC that Cleve gets plenty of visitors because its trail gives people a Y.
New events open and some close, so these counts will change. Check the event map before you plan a trip around one letter.
How many letters you can reach near each capital city
We also measured how many letters have at least one event within 100km of each capital's centre. This is a straight-line distance, so driving distances will be longer. The table uses the same 11 November 2026 event list.
| City | Letters within 100km (of 25) | Letters missing |
|---|---|---|
| Brisbane | 23 | D, Q |
| Melbourne | 21 | I, Q, U, Z |
| Perth | 20 | F, I, O, V, Z |
| Adelaide | 17 | F, H, I, K, Q, U, Y, Z |
| Sydney | 14 | B, F, H, I, J, O, Q, U, V, Y, Z |
| Canberra | 11 | A, D, E, F, H, I, K, L, N, O, S, V, Y, Z |
| Hobart | 9 | A, C, D, E, F, H, I, J, L, N, S, U, V, W, Y, Z |
| Darwin | 3 | 22 letters |
South-east Queensland is the easiest place to start. Within 100km of Brisbane are Zillmere (Z), Ipswich (I), Underwood Park (U), Varsity Lakes (V), Forest Lake and Fodder Forest (F), and Yarrabilba (Y). A Brisbane parkrunner can collect four of the five rare letters without leaving the region.
Sydney is harder than its size suggests. The 49 events within 100km of the city cover only 14 letters. Even B is missing: the nearest B events, Blackbutt and Blue Gum Hills, are a little over 100km away near Newcastle. Sydney parkrunners will need trips up the coast, down the coast or inland for many letters.
Smaller cities have their own shortcuts. Canberra has both Queanbeyan (Q) and Umbagong District (U) close by. Hobart's Queens Domain gives a local Q, and Perth has Quinns Rocks, the University of Western Australia and Yokine for Q, U and Y.
The two Z events
Z is the letter most Australian alphabeteers have to plan for. In 2022, a runner told the ABC there was only one Z in Australia. That was Zillmere parkrun at O'Callaghan Park in Brisbane's north. Its course is run entirely on grass, and the course page warns that some sections can get muddy after rain. The briefing, a short welcome talk before the start, begins at 6.45am.
The second Z opened in February 2024 at Zeehan, an old mining town on Tasmania's west coast. The course starts at the golf club and uses part of the Spray Tunnel track, which passes through rainforest. Within weeks, the parkrun blog reported that two separate groups from Yorkshire in the UK had travelled to it. Some local accommodation was offering a late check-out after parkrun.
For most mainland parkrunners outside Queensland, Zillmere is the simpler Z. It sits in a capital city with an airport and public transport. Zeehan suits people already planning a Tasmanian holiday. Strahan, Queenstown and Rosebery are nearby west coast towns, so a Saturday morning at Zeehan can fit into a longer drive around the region.
Planning a trip for a rare letter
Each event runs once a week on Saturday morning, so a cancelled event can cost you the whole trip. parkrun lists the closures it already knows about on its cancellations page for the next three weeks. Reasons include weather, a lack of volunteers or the venue being unavailable. Check the page the week you travel and again on Friday. If your trip is long enough, keep a second Saturday free as a backup.
Start times differ between events. Read the course page for the event you are visiting, including where the briefing happens and where to park. Course surfaces also vary. Zillmere is all grass, while Zeehan uses a bush track that can be rougher underfoot, so pack shoes that suit the course.
Bring your parkrun barcode. Event pages are clear that without a barcode there is no result. A simple list of the letters you have done makes it easy to see what is left. If you have not signed up yet, registration is free and you only do it once.
Plan rare letters around longer stays. Here are some groupings that use the events listed above:
- Tasmania: Zeehan, Queens Domain in Hobart and Inveresk in Launceston cover Z, Q and I over three Saturdays.
- NSW south coast and Canberra: Ulladulla, Queanbeyan and Umbagong District cover U and Q, with a spare U.
- NSW north coast: Urunga, Yamba and Queen Elizabeth Park in Casino cover U, Y and Q.
- Victoria: Victory Road Reserve and Inverloch cover V and I, but you will still need a trip interstate for Q, U and Z.
Starting with the letters near you
Most of the alphabet can be done close to home. Find the events in your area through parkrun listings on KeepActive, then use parkrun's event map to see which first letters are nearby. Write down the letters you can reach easily, then mark the rare ones that will need a trip.
Visiting a new event is also a chance to see how other teams run parkrun. Every event relies on volunteers, and visitors are welcome to help too. Our article on parkrun's popularity explains how volunteering works and why it keeps events going each week.
