Clutching a football covered with the names of cancer patients, LSA sophomore Andrew Seiden set out from Ann Arbor early Friday morning on the first leg of a 187-mile multi-marathon to Columbus.

He arrived at Ohio Stadium just before the Michigan-Ohio State game Saturday.

The occasion for the trek was the fourth annual Pike Charity Football Run, organized by the brothers of the campus chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha. Proceeds go toward the Coach Carr Cancer Fund.

Although it received many of the donations before the run, the fraternity will collect donations until the end of the semester. As of Sunday night, it had raised $43,333. The goal is to eventually reach $50,000.

The run, which lasts about 27 hours, includes about 110 fraternity brothers, who run various distances in relay fashion, passing off a football on the way.

Seiden said the knowledge that the run benefited cancer victims motivated him.

"I was quite frequently looking down at the ball in my hands, and I was using that as inspiration to keep running," he said. "The people I'm honoring are going through so much more physically and emotionally."

LSA junior Michael Breen, who helped organize the relay, said the news of legendary Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler's death motivated the runners to run harder.

"I felt like it was an incentive to push through and complete the run," Breen said.

Runners always take back roads to Columbus instead of running along the highway for safety reasons.

Yet in 2003, its first year, one of the runners ran into some trouble.

One participant was almost arrested while running in a rural area in Ohio.

Police had been searching for someone who had robbed a local 7-Eleven. They thought the runner matched the description. Because he was running, he looked like he was fleeing the scene. The police almost arrested him while he was still holding the football. Then the police found the actual culprit and let the runner go.

Donations have grown exponentially over the years as the run has gained momentum, jumping from just $1,200 in 2003 to $38,000 last year.

Organizers have also added a bar night on the Thursday before the game, partly to help raise money but also to get runners excited for the run, which begins in the wee hours of the next morning. This year, the fraternity collected $1,755 at the bar night.

"I love going to the bar, but it was a more special night of going to the bar because of what it meant," Business School sophomore Jon Marks said. "This bar night was the culmination of all the work that we had done to make the run happen."

He added that donation efforts have expanded to include corporations, restaurants, and more families. Marks even solicited donations from his favorite high school teachers in his hometown of Deerfield, Ill.

LSA freshman Alex Reich, who participated in the run for his first time this year, said he was optimistic about its future.

"In the past three years we have continuously raised our total goal," he said in an e-mail interview. "I can't wait to see what we are capable of in three more years."

To donate to the charity, visit pikefootball.com.