My favourite and most precious son (my only son too) is in Spain at the moment and fulfilled his dream to run with the bulls! Oh yuck says me, but what can I say or do! He is travelling with a number of mates from Secondary school, based in Putney in London. The boys are 24 ish.
Shortly after their run, Luke wrote the following email, but its a little graffic, so dont read if you dont like scary stuff.....
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 1:41 AM
Subject: Running of the bulls
I survived
Hi all,
I just thought I should try and get this one out while it's still fresh in my mind. This morning me and the boys (Craig Harrison, Rob Glassenbury, Andrew McCoullough, Toby Moran, Beatle, & Dave Malone + heaps of Spaniards) ran with the bulls in Pampolona.
The hardest thing about this was last night people were telling us how 2 people died yesterday doing the run. I was just telling them to shut up and i'd speak to them the next day about it. As it turns out, they were just talking, erm, bullsh*t because no-one did kark it (no-one since 1995 anyway). Although.... a bloke got a horn in his hip which came out of his arse yesterday. Front page on the local newspaper which was bloody GREAT to see.
What a day! We got up at 4ishAM to grab the one hour bus ride from San Sebastian to Pampolona. We all, surprisingly, got out of bed without any hassles even though we went on a pub crawl last night.
Once we got there, it was crazy to see all of the locals (they far outweigh tourists here which was great) still partying like crazy. Lots of sangria stained white t-shirts. Craig, Rob & myself decided to case the run and try and work out where we should start the run. There weren't too many people around at this stage which was strange. We were also trying to catch up with the other boys in our crew.
Anyway, we found our spot to start right next to ¨death corner¨'. It's called that because all of the bulls slam into the wall because hooves were made for 90 degree turns. We knew the first firework shot to signal the start was going at 8:00am so waiting there with heaps of Spaniards (streets now packed), meant there was a fair bit of expectation. All of a sudden everyone started running. Holy leaping dog-sh$t!!!! It was just at this moment that we caught up with everyone else. Great timing! We were slowly jogging up the street looking around at every second moment to see what was going on. Then the crowd started going nuts. Bulls!!!!! We were running pretty quick at this stage and I turned around to see a herd of about 8 (??) bulls running in this pack through the middle of the crowd. I ran to the side with the rest of the punters and got the most insane rush when they sped (I mean sped) past me. The only thing you really had to worry about was jumping over the blokes that had fallen on the ground. Otherwise your screwed too! I think some practice on the footy field helped here because I didn't go down. I few of our mates felt the ground though....
Anyway, the first pack went through without any harm. Then the second firecracker goes off to signal the second bunch had been let out. The crowd picked up again. Still running towards the stadium and then, same as before, I turn around and there are bulls screaming towards us all. Two of the bulls fell over right when they were next to me. This wasn't so great because now they were next to me running at my pace. They got up and then sped past me when they got going.
Now we needed to make sure we'd actually get into the stadium - they close the doors after the bulls come in. Surprisingly, there wasn't a huge squeeze and I got through. Awesome feeling running into the packed stadium with everyone going nuts!!!!
I then hooked up with the rest of the boys and waited for the next bit. We're all locked in the stadium and then, one by one, they let a bull go inside. It basically goes nuts with people wacking it on the arse with rolled up papers. This is where I saw all of the carnage.
As the bull is let out of the door, Spaniard blokes were basically sitting in front of the door doing a kind of 'thinking man' pose. This is to prove they have balls. Well anyway, those blokes do because they always got trampled.
Once the bull's inside, it's like it sets it's target on someone and then just tries to mow them down. People get nailed because they sprinting away from the bull in a straight line and the bull then just lines them up. Over the horns they go. If they're lucky, they'll get picked up and the bull tosses them aside. If they're not, the bull gorges the bejesus out of the them on the ground. I saw so many bulls nail guys in the nuts. Youch.
It was a weird atmosphere inside the ring. We were all sh*tting ourselves but the locals are a bit different. We had some young girls in front of us in the ring having the time of there lives. Hardly even looking around at the bulls. Others were drinking piss and even smoking joints!
After 6 or so bulls were let in, that was the end of the proceedings. Absolutely awesome time. Good to hear none of the boys got hurt or anything.
Well there you go. Another unique experience in the trip.