Rovio is sponsoring the “Course of the Force” relay race, which starts on July 7th in Santa Monica and ends on July 11th in San Diego. What is Course of the Force you ask? Well, it’s an Olympic-style relay race with — wait for it — lightsabers! It’s a charity event benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation where participants walk or run a 1/4 mile before passing the lightsaber off to the next participant (ideally not severing their hand in the process).
Thanks to an invite by Rovio I will be one of those participants! Even better, if you happen to be in Southern California between July 7th and 11th you might be able to participate too (note, you must be 18 years or older). If you’re interested in joining this awesome event email community@rovio.com. The Angry Birds team will be at the relay on Wednesday, July 11th, so if your down in San Diego they’re inviting you to stop by and say “Hi”! Rovio has more details on their blog post here.
BTW, Angry Birds and Star Wars have a bit of a past, though it’s nothing official. If you’ve never seen this awesome Angry Birds mashup I highly recommend you check it out.
Course of the Force Race Day Recap & Pictures
After boarding the Course of the Force shuttle in Long Beach, CA we headed down to PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) to join up with the racers making their way down from Redondo Beach. On board the Imperial Shuttle were Darth Vader, an AT-AT Walker (it took two guys to pull this off), Princess Leia, a full-blown Scout Trooper, and various other characters. It was a amazing group with some awesome costumes. Joining this cast of characters were were myself and my son, who was dressed as Boba Fett (since Rovio invited me I thought it was fitting to don my homemade “Angry Luke” shirt).
Our shuttle basically led the procession, which included cops, photographers, a couple huge Course of the Force RV’s, and Jabba the Hut’s Sail Barge. At designated intervals — every 1/4 to 1/2 mile or so — we would stop and another racer would jump out of the shuttle, grabbing the light saber from the previous runner.
My son and I were one of the last stops, so we were not far from the Huntington Beach pier. We had a great light saber battle for about a 1/4 mile of our leg. After that the summer heat got the better of him so I carried him the last 1/4 mile. Little Boba Fett is heavy! All-in-all it was a truly great time, benefiting a great cause.
I just wanted to personally thank the Rovio crew for inviting us to participate. I hope some of you took up them up their offer as well.
Course of the Force Teaser Video
