I've thrown some hackathons at work and this is the model we always use. Friday after work + dinner we brainstorm and figure out what to do and then we might pr

I've thrown some hackathons at work and this is the model we always use. Friday after work + dinner we brainstorm and figure out what to do and then we might prototype a bit. Saturday we meet again refreshed and hack, we dont stay up to late and might even go for beers. Then we meet for another 4-5 hours on sunday to make a wrap of it. Personally I can enjoy both the 24-hour/whatever-hour stretch and the weekend-with-rest style, but I find the first one to require working with someone with whom we feed energy to each other so we can maintain progress — I've just met one such person in my life and he doesn't live in the same country as me anymore. So in the end I prefer the weekend style hackathon now as well.