Comic-Con Will Open With A Lightsaber Relay Race This Year To Benefit Make-A-Wish

Not attending Comic-Con International in San Diego this year just started to hurt a lot more. Chris Hardwick (of The Nerdist podcast and related activities) is joining forces (yeah, I said it) with Lucasfilm Ltd., Nerdist Industries, Octagon, Machinima and well, you,  if you can make it for a Star Wars lightsaber Olympic-style relay race to open SDCC this year. The course will begin in Santa Monica, California and participants will pass the lightsaber every quarter mile all 136 miles to San Diego. It’s called Course of the Force and it’s going to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Watch the video and read on for more details. 

“For poop sake, most of you save up your whole year of cash and vacation time to go to SDCC so why not run at it screaming??,” wrote Hardwick. The race starts Saturday July 7 and will continue for five days until preview night of SDCC. You can become a participant buy purchasing a quarter mile of the course for $500 and 100% of that money will go to the charity. You’ll also receive a Star Wars Ultimate FX lightsaber for running as well as other swag but there are only a limited number of spots (about 500) open to the general public. You know what that means…celebrity runners!

We’d like to be the first to suggest that former Doctor Who star David Tennant be allowed to do the final leg of the race since he’s most likely not going to get to live out in real life what he did on his show, lighting the Olympic torch in the 2012 opener in London. Thank you.

Seriously though, I really, really wish I were attending the convention this year because I would totally be participating in this. What a great idea.

(via Hero Complex)

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Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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