Course of the Force, the lightsaber relay to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, is coming back for its second year, and this time it’s going to be even bigger! Announced by Chris Hardwick of The Nerdist on Jimmy Fallon’s show, this year’s Course of the Force will start all the way at Skywalker Ranch on July 9, north of San Francisco and wind its way down to Comic Con San Diego on July 16.
Registration is now open, with participants carrying the Course of the Force lightsaber (often in costume) for a quarter mile. This year’s fee is $150, which is much lower than last year’s inaugural race fee, but 100% of the proceeds go to several California chapters of the Make-A-Wish Foundation: Bay Area, Greater Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire, and San Diego. In addition to the leg of the relay for that day, Course of the Force hosts a public ‘Conival’ in the afternoon and evening, with cool bands, giveaways, and more.
I ran in Course of the Force last year, which was like an Olympic torch dream and Star Wars dream mashed together to come true. It really was a fun experience that helped a good cause and brought fans of all kinds together. Last year, Her Universe’s Ashley Eckstein was a co-host of the event, providing daily video recaps after each day’s leg with Chris Hardwick from the Sail Barge, and Peter Mayhew was also a guest. So who knows who might show up this year!
If you can, come join the fun – either by being a relay runner/walker, coming to a Conival, or simply helping raise funds for Make-A-Wish through Course of the Force! The relay is sponsored by Nerdist Industries, Lucasfilm and Octagon Events. For more info, just visit CourseOfTheForce.Starwars.com.
I know this has to be a giant pain in the butt to prepare, but I’d love to see this done in other parts of the country.
(And no. I’m not volunteering to put that together.)
I could see it lead into a Celebration, but hopefully not in Florida in August!
If they’ll be running from SF to SD, surely they could do, say, D.C. to Orlando for a Celebration… If they ever move it to May. Or maybe for the first Star Wars Weekend? Those are pretty early, right?
I don’t know if Star Wars Weekends (of which there are multiple in a year) would be big enough of a draw to pull the whole Nerdist machine out of California for a stretch.
Last year they did Santa Monica to San Diego (150 miles) in 5 days, skipping about 50 miles in the middle, and also taking a day off to do a special walk in Legoland.
This year is Marin to San Diego (540 miles along the coast route) in 8 days. I’m guessing that the most the route with actual runners will be 200 miles (averaging 25 miles/day), with no off days, which is less than half the route.
Doing DC to Orlando is 850 miles along I-95 (a more scenic route along surface streets would be needed), and doing it in a full two weeks would only cover 30-40% of the actual route, and skip the rest. I’d imagine that getting coordination in multiple states would be even more of a nightmare than dealing with just one state’s worth of jurisdictions.