I Ran With The Bulls And Survived

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Was up at 6am to spark up and get my arse to the course for the run. Headed in with some Americans that were staying in another room but had my guts decide they wanted to get rid of the tap water I had drunk at 4am along the way. Portable toilet block was out of paper, so after hassling the cleaning guy for some got the Cabury squirts out of the way then made my way to the entry gate to get into the course.

Damn there was a lot of people there. Just getting through the gate was a squeeze, I hadn't been expecting there to be this many people here. Mostly guys but there was a few girls in there as well - but it turned out they were just there to soak in the atmosphere and would leave before the bulls were released. Plenty of people had cameras and some clown was even wearing a backpack. But not for too long, he was ejected by the cops 😊

"Indy" turned up with his copy of the Financial Times, the serious looking locals were doing stretches, dickhead tourists were talking things up, plenty of people were feeling nervous (or shit scared) and trying not to show it. I had heard two different thoughts on spectating v running. One was to spectate first so you knew what to expect then run the next day. The other was to run first because you would be too scared after you watched and knew what it was like. I heard one dickhead say he had done the running the day before, which was impossible seeing this was the first day lol.

There was a lot of standing around for what seemed forever. Eventually the police that were stopping people from spreading down the rest of the course let people through, thoough I stayed in the square. My plan was to start halfway through the square where I could see the bulls coming into the square, then run along the outside past the wall to the next barricade and under it if need be. I wasnt planning on getting to the corner of death.

At 8am the bell on the clock rung and everyone gave a somewhat nervous cheer. You could see people's faces changing, from trying to look excited and happy, to looking very worried, colour draining away. A number of people starting walking or trying to run further down the course at this stage. It was only a couple of minutes later that we heard the explosion that signalled the first group of bulls were being released. Made everyone jump, and you realised it was too late to back out now. Most people started trying to run down the course but this was hard due to the amount of people in there.

Bang! Second rocket went off signalling all the bulls were now onto the course. Which meant the first group would be getting close to the top of the hill and into the square. From what I can remember pretty much everyone that wasn't already trying to run started running at this stage. It was like thousands of rats trying to flee a sinking ship, pushing others, tripping over, yelling... there wasn't just your own fear but you could sense it coming from everyone else as well.

By the time I had gotten to the start of the wall I could hear a general noise getting louder behind me. I half tripped over someone then someone else knocked my glasses off. I caught them as I was pushed into the wall. I managed to get a few more metres before the way infront was a solid wall of people all stuck with no further to go. The noise seemed to be getting closer, and I turned to look left as someone ran across towards the wall and into me, and saw some horns go past just a few feet away - the person that had just run into me had only just gotten out of the way lol.

Looking left some more I saw one guy that was caught by his shirt on a horn, spinning around trying to get off it. He sort of disappeared as he kept going down the course, and it turns out he had fallen and knocked himself out on the road. Along came more cattle and they were jumping over the guy on the road. Then one of the bulls was directly across the road from me, trying to get a few people huddling up against it. Didn't really work out for him, so he turned around and was looking straight at me it seemed. As he took a couple of warm up steps towards us I was thinking "this guy in front will cop the horns", then a steer ran past inbetween us and distracted the bull and he ran off down the course.

He didnt get too far though, getting stuck into a few people in the chaos that happened before the corner of death. I didn't get to see what happened to those people because as soon as the bull was gone the paramedics and police were straight into the course to help people. They do a pretty good job those fellas. The four older ones with cowbells that they use to pick up any straggling bulls hadn't even come through yet (meaning the course was still open to the bull coming back) and the paramedics already had people on spinal boards. People were still looking around wondering if there were more to come, not sure if all the bulls had gone through yet.

Once the older ones went through, people felt more relaxed and started walking down the course towards the end. Down around the corner they had already taken the top barricade off the window of the bar and people were watching the coverage on TV. There was one bull that was still on the course just a few hundred metres away, trying to get to anyone it could but it was pretty tired and in some kind of discomfort from its leg. Eventually it went down into the ring and collapsed on the ground for several minutes before they got it into the pen.

holy shit I made it through in one piece!!

I think most people had that feeling, I know I did. It had all happened so fast after such a long time waiting for things to start. I dont even remember hearing the sounds of hooves on the cobblestones. Ran into plenty more Aussies around the place, only one I met that was injured was a guy in a Roosters jersey that had hyperextended his knee. Apparently all the people that get injured (and treated) are named in the paper... if you get gored they send a photographer to the hospital to get a picture for the paper of you all propped up in bed... but if you die then no picture, just an obituary.

I had decided I wasn't going to hang around for another day but go to the place I had already booked as a backup in San Sebastian instead, so I had to be out of the accomodation by 9:30. Headed back to the apartment and only got there just in time as the guts decided they still hadn't gotten rid of all the Pamplona water and had another round of squirts. Weird middle aged Norwegian guy was walking around in his undies with one testicle hanging out congratulating people. I had a shower, chatted with other people that had done the run then got the hell out of there.

I got lucky with a ticket for the bus and managed to get on the next one to San Sebastian, which was only an hour away. Turned out to be quite a nice place, pretty much what I had been expecting Nice to be, like a grown up beach resort town. I didn't make it over to the "surf" beach but the setting on the harbour was pretty nice. Checked in, then went and got a ticket to get me to Santander the next day sorted - and could only just get there too, there was only one bus left the next day @ 9:10, glad I didn't leave it until any later. Walked around the harbour and up the hill past the lighthouse, checked out a few streets around the old quarter. Ended up having a kebab for dinner at the promenade, perving on hot girls walking past.

Before crashing out lined up to watch the next morning's Running on the TV in the owner's private room, went to bed fairly early.

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