Well I did it! I checked one more thing off life’s ‘to do’ list. Check out the video here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4U_XAaUEr4
When I was considering this endeavour I weighed my unquenchable thirst for adventure with my love of animals. I will say that there was no killing of the bulls in my part of the festivities. As a matter of fact I see it as a chance for the bulls to get even. The runners are not professional bullfighters & although some do arm themselves with a rolled up newspaper to distract the bull, most of us had nothing but our instincts & wits to avoid the bulls. The first thing that locals say, and I mean all locals, literally every single one that we spoke to was…’don’t do it, don’t run’. Traditional bullfighting here is not something that I would choose to witness or participate in. I felt what we did this morning was more for fun & as I mentioned evening the playing field in favour of the animals. Many runners are injured everyday three were hospitalized today & one was killed just last year. Bullfighting here is as pervasive in this culture as rodeo is in ours.
Christie & I arrived here yesterday morning and walked the half hour that it took to get to Old Town Pamplona. Pamplona is a fully modern city of about 200 000 people located in the North of Spain in Basque country. The current city surrounds the Old Town which has the distinctive narrow streets & typical architecture that we have become accustomed to in Spain. We bought our obligatory San Fermin garb which consists of white pants, a white shirt with red sash & neckerchief. With the San Fermin festival the streets of old town Pamplona are crowded & drunkenly festive unlike anything I have ever seen and the World d Cup final with Spain hadn’t even began yet. The heat is sweltering here 34°C, even in the evening. We explored the area where the bulls will be running which was the main street Estafeta which also happens to be where the centre of the party is congregating. To be honest I am far too old for the intensity of the drunkenness & partying that is going on here. 10-20 years ago I may have relished in it however now it simply aggravated me. Imagine the Calgary Stampede with no rules, no doormen or no security & no limit on the amount of alcohol one could consume. There are running of the bulls in most Spanish towns. The one in Pamplona during the San Fermin festival just happens to be the most famous probably because it was featured in Ernest Hemmingway’s novel ‘The Sun Also Rises’. The tradition of this event was originally to transport the bulls from the off-site corals where they had spent the night, to the bullring where they would be killed later that evening. Basque men would run with them to get them to the ring but also to show off their bravery and eventually it gained in popularity which led to today’s tradition. We went to a bar & watched Spain beat The Netherlands in the World Cup final with a young runner from Houston Texas who was also staying in our hotel. After Spain won Christie & I went down to take in the festivities & although I was on Jasper Avenue the last time the Oilers won the Cup, I am sure I have never seen anything quite like this.
The course is 800-900 meters long & is almost entirely uphill. In the beginning it is actually quite steep. The main road Estafeta which is the spot I began has a long incline about 300 meters up a narrow street. The bull fights are later in the evening a spectacle that I did not choose to witness. In my opinion to say that you have run with the bulls you actually have to run WITH the bulls. In fact most stand on the sidelines & wait for the herd to pass and run behind them which kind of seemed like cheating to me. Estafeta Street is after the La Curvo de la Estafeta turn where the bulls generally slip although they did not during my running this morning. After that it is important on Estafeta to stay on the right hand side of the street as the bulls usually run up the left side of the street if they in fact do slip in the corner. BUT this is a general rule & like most rules is only a guideline meant to be broken in appropriate circumstances. Anything can happen & although this was a relatively safe run for a first time runner, if there was no risk there would not be any reward. By the way if a bull is coming at you slide under the fence do not try & climb over it
The run begins every day at 8a.m. with a rocket being shot off to signify that the bulls have been released more rockets are fired when all of the bulls enter the ring & are corralled for the evening fights signifying the end of that days run. The average run is actually pretty fast and mine lasted only 2 minutes & fifteen seconds. There were some animals that got separated from the group which is a very dangerous. “They only want to kill when they’re alone. Of course, if you went in there you’d probably detach one of them from the herd, and he’d be dangerous.” – The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
I met in the square in front of the Town Hall where there is a wide assortment of people, from seniors to tattooed westerners, many young guys with wine soaked dirty clothes that looked like they hadn’t slept in days to fit Spaniards casually reading the newspaper. Police removed a few people that were overly intoxicated had cameras or were wearing backpacks. I noticed a guy that was obviously a Canadian he had maple leaf tattoo on his arm, a maple leaf bandana & Pacific coast Indian tattoos on his back, so I yelled ‘hey Canadian’. We chatted for awhile; he seemed like a nice guy, believe it or not he was a pharmacist from Winnipeg. They then divided the crowd on both sides of the street keeping the middle of the street clear. Then police walked down the free center isle on the cobblestone street & the crowd enclosed in behind them following them to some barricades that I could not see creating a mass of people. We stayed there for a few minutes before the police took down the barricades the wall of people rushed to their spots on the course
After the rockets went off there was a rush of adrenaline go through my stomach. There were several groups of people who ran by right away. You cannot see the bulls coming as there is so many people, in fact there was several panic waves of runners that began to run too early & got out too far in front of the bulls. This can be dangerous because if you begin to run too early & end up in Telefónica which is the small square that leads into Plaza de Toros, the bull ring, it is the most dangerous part of the course & where Daniel Romero an experienced runner was gored to death last year. In total 15 people have been killed running with the bulls in the San Fermin festival. So waiting after what seemed like a lifetime and was only about a minute it was actually the flash of the cameras that signaled to me that the bulls were closing in as we were still in the morning shadows of the narrow streets and the animals were obscured by the crowd of runners. Then I could feel it in the air, the sense of excitement that was inescapable. It was an unseen force like a flood of electricity washed over me before I actually saw the bulls, Then I saw one coming up upon me faster than I anticipated so stepped out & began to run looking backwards, I smashed into a runner in front of me knocking him the ground then before I knew it massive black bull was galloping along my left side I thought I reached out & placed my hand on his flank & kept up with him for a few meters and what seemed like 5-10 seconds before he pulled away until we saw the video afterwards I saw that I only lightly grazed his flank with my hand for about a half a second. It is funny how the mind plays tricks on you in that state! At any rate, there were more bulls coming up so quickly behind me & I looked back & some people in front of me had fallen & and I went spilling over them to the ground, they say if you fall and the bulls are behind you to stay down, I did not do this instead trusted my instincts & hopped up as quickly as I could, missing a shoe! It worked out well for me although with my shoe flying off, there I was with 1000 pound bulls running by me as I hopped on one leg putting on a shoe. I continued running up Estafeta the main street after the bulls had passed & I saw a young Australian fellow I had met earlier in the square with a Kiwi. We ran together & just as they shut the gates leading into the bull ring. S**t! I thought I missed getting into the Plaza (bull ring). I walked over to the side of the gate & it opened a crack so I slipped through running the short distance through Telefónica down the tunnel & into the filled coliseum. I didn’t know at that time that there were still three bulls coming into the ring behind me. I made it into the bull ring & marvelled at being in front of a packed stadium of cheering fans. My professional athlete friends must miss that experience as it was quite intoxicating standing in front of a packed arena of screaming spectators. Then all of the sudden there was another frenzied panicked rush of people sprinting down the entrance into the bull ring. The late bulls were ushered into the ring everyone collectively seemed to tense up & we were relieved when they went straight into the coral. The ring is where most of the deaths have occurred over the years and when bulls become separated from the herd those are especially dangerous animals. I saw another Canadian from Calgary (he had a Canadian flag on) and I talked to the Kiwi that I met in the square. A short time later they release the baby bulls (or some say that they are female fighters I am not sure which) but they come charging out of the chute mad as hell & they are fast mean & aggressive. And immediately start charging at people throwing them around like rag dolls. Although their horns are blocked off so they cannot gore people yet this is where they get even & throw people in the air & beat the tar out of them. They are fast & attack people without any warning. They’ll turn suddenly & set their sights on someone & unless they are very agile they’re either going down in a heap or getting flung into the air at times in full somersault & trampled to the cheers of the crowd. Only after the baby bulls are out there for 4-5 minutes & begin to tire do some runners begin to get brave. After they will bring the oxen out & escort the little bull into the coral until another is released shortly after that. And the process repeats itself although it is seen as a perversion of their tradition to taunt the bulls & the Spanish will punch someone for pulling the bulls tail & being disrespectful. Having said that after the smaller bulls tire (they’re not that little by the way) it did not seem fair to me. I left after awhile although there were no deaths it seemed that part of the festivities was a bit like teasing the animal. .. It was quite a chore getting out of the bull fighting arena. It was jam packed to capacity & after I decided I had had enough & wanted to go meet Christie outside of the stadium there were no exits from the stadium floor. I had to crawl over the façade & into the stands where I had to step over people as there is no room & people sit literally on the steps and there is not a free seat anywhere and there is only two exits in the entire stadium. I found Christie outside of the bullfighting arena & although I love her so very much, she’s not the best videographer. Even after joking about it last night several times she turned the camera sideways for the video….oh Christie! How can I stay mad at such an angel? God I love her
There were a lot fewer runners running with me on Monday (3000 as opposed to 5000 yesterday) so it was a bonus as having too many runners is the biggest problem with people tripping over each other. On the other hand with fewer runners you can tend to get the bulls attention easier. The 6 bulls that run are usually dark in colour and are accompanied with 6 steers which are typically light coloured and run daily with the different sets of bulls. My group of bulls was the Victoriano Del Río Cortés breed. This year was the debut of this breed at San Fermin so it was an unknown how they would react since they took part in the running of the bulls for the first time ever. This created some nervousness. Each days running of the bulls has a different bull breed all of which have different reputations of how they will react. However like fighters you cannot go on reputation alone, they can do anything during the running
I was expecting it to be like the excitement experienced in football playing kickoff cover jumping off of a cliff into water or something, however seeing 1000 lb animals rushing upon me to be truthful it is a lot more frightening than I had anticipated. When you are that close to that large of an animal traveling that fast, knowing the unpredictability and aggressiveness of the bulls and the fact that they could kill you in an instant was a sense of fear and excitement that I am not sure I have previously experienced.
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