Pamplona – part 1 – Bull Run

Edit:  I wrote the beginning wrong & don’t feel like editing it now.  After arriving in Pamplona, we had a free day to follow.  We went to san Sebastian.  I’ll post about that after I finish w/ Pamplona & before Barcelona. 

In the evening of the 1st day of arrival we kept it on the chill side, though a fair amount of alcohol was consumed (edit some of this to the 2nd nite after san Sebastian).  We went to the center of the city & scoped out the route for the bull run, which is part of the 7 day festival of San Fermin…in honor of another frenchy, bitch.  There was an incline to start the race, which is where you see a lot of injuries occur.  The bulls are released from the bullpen & a rocket signals that.  They run for about 150 meters & then get to where the runners start.  A 2nd rocket is then launched.  After about 400 meters there is dead man’s curve where you see the bulls fall down & crash into walls & people.  This is where the bulls can get separated.  A lot of injuries occur there.  About 400 meters later, there is arena where the people fan out & they tried to corral the bulls.  Once that occurs, they signal the end of the run with a 3rd rocket.  The whole run lasts between 2 minutes to 5 minutes 30 seconds.  You then hear the blare of the sirens of the ambulance to cart away the injured.  the excitement doesn’t stop there though.  They release bulls into the arena who fuck w/ the runners.  people only get hurt here.  The gorings happen on the run.  The reason for that is that smaller bulls are used in the ring & their horns are capped & taped so not to pierce people.  Now that you have a background, let’s get into my experience on the first day.

We woke up at about 6am and journeyed to the run.  It was packed closer than shoulder to shoulder, because there were about a million in attendance this year.  That was the biggest they had seen…maybe because it started on a weekend.  Oh well.  when walking thru the ground, you had to bulldoze ur way thru.  Tatonka (steve) was sometimes the leader, so you hold onto the belt of the person in front of you & u press thru.

this is by dead man's curve

also near dead man's curve

sharp lookin son of a gun

here they are cleaning the streets about 15 minutes before the run

We made our way along the path until we found an open area and waited about an hour.  Approximately 7 minutes before the supposed start we got kicked out by the police, and there was a near riot.  tatonka and I were separated from the other 3 and we set up our stance as the police pushed the front people & the people pushed from the rear.  This is the type of stuff where ppl get crushed.  If you fell down, u were going to be trampled pretty good.  This escalated a little bit & you could say this was the first riot I had been in, and bottles had started to be thrown.  The police started pepper spraying people.  Damn you euro-hooligans.  We got corralled thru a tiny alley way just absolutely littered with trash & drinks.  The cobble stone was very slippery & ppl were falling.  I saw some people get hogtied and carried out.  Somewhat scary if you are a pussy.  I on the other hand was not, so I was pissed I got kicked out of the run.

these guys helped to incite & control the riot

some of the po-po & a view including the balconies

i need to get the video up soon

That was an interesting time & we were super bummed.  The alley way dumped us in front of the arena.  We took advantage of that and bought some scalped tickets w/ prime seating in the arean.  Because of the riots, the race started 6 minutes late, so we didn’t miss anything.  Sweet.  Now let’s get into some photos from the arena.  i'll post some better ones later once i get ronaldo's photos.  i got movies.

bull's entering

runners in the arena



playing w/ the bulls

Overall the morning of day 1 was good, but somewhat of a letdown due to not running.  At least there was tomorrow… 
 

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