For the second year in a row, Star Wars fans are taking part in Course of the Force, a lightsaber relay charity running event starting in the San Francisco Bay Area in the US and ending at Comic-Con 2013 in San Diego later this week. And, as part of the festivities, it took in Google's headquarters in Mountain View along the way.

The run, which is put on by Lucasfilm (Disney), event organisers Octagon, and Nerdist Industries, takes place to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. It is a pseudo Olympic torch-style affair, albeit with the torch replaced with a plastic replica lightsaber and it's not run over the full 500 miles from San Francisco to San Diego, but important landmarks such as the Googleplex and Yahoo's HQ in Sunnyvale.

Each of the participant, who dress in Star Wars costume to perform their run, pays $150 to the charity to carry the lightsaber a quarter of a mile. Some Wish Kids also get a chance to participate and the charity pays for some to attend Comic-Con.

As Make-A-Wish San Diego director of partnerships, Alex Cano, told Wired: "Coming to Comic-Con has been a popular wish for years for Wish kids. Make-A-Wish is about making dreams come true and for some people running a marathon or being involved with something like Course of the Force or Star Wars or Lucasfilm or Nerdist is all part of that idea of making wishes come true."

And for some, dressing up in a shag-pile carpet and running around a bunch of software engineers' offices is a once in a lifetime opportunity.