Nobody runs the whole course, if you want to try that I suggest you turn up earlier in the year when one of the Penas arrange a foot race along the bull run course. The current record is for men 2 minutes and 3 seconds and for women 2 minutes and 31 seconds. When the bulls do their stuff in July when the streets are crowded, most mornings they beat the 3 minute barrier. When people talk about running with the bulls, that is what it means… you pick your stretch and when the bulls come you run with them. OK, so it is not that simple but just to make one small point; starting half way up the course and as soon as the first rocket goes off you take off and run as fast as possible into the bullring jump over the wall and you are finished at least a minute before the bulls arrive…. This is not running with the bulls. You can kid on to your friends back home, how brave you were but you will know the truth. If you do intend to do this… fair enough, you can blag your way through conversations in the pub with phrases like “ I always run in the Estafeta” but you don’t have to bother reading any more of this guide to bull running, just flick through the rest of this guide book to see if there are any pictures of naked women to add to your fantasy world. You will not be by yourself, hundreds of ‘runners’ do it that way every morning. So lets assume that you are not a fantasy runner….. And you really do want to know about running with the bulls.
For a start you should do lots of research and make sure to watch the bull run from a balcony the day before you choose to run. Also watch as many videos as possible about the bull run but it is very different watching live from a balcony.
Starting at the beginning of the course we have SANTO DOMINGO, traditionally this used to be where the Guild of Butchers ran. It is also at this point that runners gather just before the run to offer a little ‘prayer’ or invocation to Saint Fermín. They sing this homily three times before a niche in the wall which has a figure of the Saint and is decorated with the scarves of the peñas, which is located on the Cuesta de Santo Domingo. The song goes like this: "We ask San Fermín, as our Patron, to guide us through the Bull Run and give us his blessing." If you want to learn it the Spanish goes like this…
"A San Fermín pedimos,
por ser nuestro patrón,
nos guíe en el encierro
dándonos su bendición"
At eight o'clock exactly the first rocket is launched announcing the opening of the gates of the small corrals' of Santo Domingo, while the firing of the second indicates that all the bulls have left. There are two main ways to run this part of the course you can start half way down the hill and when the rocket goes off you start running up the hill towards the Town Hall square, the bulls are as fast as fuck at this point but you might just make it into the square. It is very difficult if not impossible to run with the bulls in this part of the course because of their speed and the fact that the street is very narrow and uphill. You tend to take off and then very quickly have to hit the wall as the bulls thunder past, you have no thinking time what so ever so you must know exactly what you are doing in this run. The second way of running SANTO for the folks back home. The standards operating procedure in these circumstances is a forearm smash to push him out of the way as you steam past him (you know it makes sense). The thing is fear effects different people in different ways, I was having a good run one morning and as we got to the top of the Estafeta there was a bit of a crush of people so I wisely hit the wall as the bulls were about to steam past as they were veering towards that side. No worries I thought until a small Frenchman slammed into the wall behind me and grabbing my shirt at my back he swung me in front of him as a shield. Fuck I thought ! But luckily for me the bulls thundered past me… “tranquillo.. tranquillo” I said. (Which translate as take it easy mate, it is OK ) As I have said before, I long for those days in the past when with the innocence of youth I believed myself to be indestructible.
It would be true to say that the Estafeta is probably the most well known bits of the bull run, partly it could be because of how Michener wrote about it in the ‘Drifters’.
“. I led the way to the barricades where the bulls leave the city hall plaza to enter Estafeta, and as we climbed into position… we could appreciate the dramatic significance of this spot, because if you ran at Town Hall, you had a limited distance to worry about, with plenty of fences under which you could duck in an emergency. But if you elected to run in Estafeta, you faced a street of considerable length, extremely narrow, uphill all the way and with never a fence to aid you. When the bulls overtook you, as they must, all you could do was either press yourself against the wall or throw yourself into the gutter and hope……
‘You ever run in Estafeta?’ Joe asked.
‘Once, and like everyone else who has done so, when I’m in a bar in Amsterdam or Montevideo and someone mentions Pamplona, I let them throw their weight around, then casually say, “I always run in Estafeta,” and the conversation halts..”
So is the Estafeta all that dangerous? Well it is not for the faint-hearted because once you are in there you have not got many options, it is long, it is narrow and it is slightly up hill. If you are considering doing the Estafeta, try it out one night about 11 o’clock and see how quickly you can run up it with crowds of people. It is true that there has only been one death in the Estafeta ( 13th July 1924 ) and that was 75 years ago, but there have been some real bad gorings. The trouble is, if a bulls is separated or it turns there are no easy escape routes. Another thing you should do if you are running in Estafeta is know where the escape routes are, the few fences and any shop railings. This is where walking the course beforehand is essential. Most of the veteran runners will still do this to check out what may have changed slightly from last year. I remember one year in the Estafeta when the bulls had just passed me and suddenly one bull turned, luckily I was quite close to some shop railing, which I climbed up and hung on to with my hands until the danger had passed. It would always be my advice that if a bull turns, get out of the street, as long as you can do so safely. Don’t try to run across the bull or move unnecessarily if the bull turns and you don’t have the time to move. Quick movement will attract the bull’s attention, when until then he might be totally unaware of your presence.
One of the worst gorings in recent years was at the top of the Estafeta just outside Casa Flores, when Stephen Townsend an American was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was running that morning and the bulls had just passed me and I felt that something was wrong and I hit the side just after they passed by. It was just then that a big black bull had pulled up facing away from me, I did not need any second invitation, I ran back to the fence at the top side street, and as my foot hit the first rung I heard the groan from the crowd which meant somebody was getting hurt as I climbed over the barrier I heard more and more screams from the crowd just as I was going through the second barrier (to give space to other escapees and the medics) Stephen Townsend was carried through onto a stretcher, he was covered in blood, as was the street. Later when I watched it on TV I could see the awful saga unfold. The bull had turned and Townsend moved, the bull then repeatedly went for him chopping into his groin and thighs with his horns. Townsend’s mistake was he kept trying to get up and crawl away. You can still see the series of photos in one of the photo shops; it was the 11th July 1984. I can still vividly remember all the blood in the street as we waited for the Casa Flores to open so we could drink to the fact that we had made it through another run. I don’t know what made me hesitate in the run and hit the side early but it stopped me from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It also made me think that I had had one too many close shaves over the ten years that I had been running and so I gave it a rest for a few years.So if we have a quick recap of the different runs, 1) You can run up Santo Domingo 2) You can run downhill in Santo Domingo towards the Bulls, 3) You can run the Town hall Square 4) You can run the Corner of Estafeta, and 5) You can run the Estafeta. There are two more runs 6) Telefonos and 7) The Tunnel, because these runs are quite close together, even if you start of thinking I will run Telefonos, you have a good chance that some of the bulls will be with you in the Tunnel. If you are running Telefonos, you can start off in the Town Hall Square and slowly walk up the course after the police let people go. However I make it a point not to go very far at all up Estafeta until I hear the first rocket. That is your signal to start jogging up the course. The only purpose here is to warm up and get yourself used to what the crowds are like in the street that morning. You are still well ahead of the bulls at this point. When you reach the top part of the Estafeta it widens out, it is at this point that I go to my take off point . You must select your own place to run, the last thing I want to do is to encourage a herd of of readers of this guide book to flock to one part of the course. If you have got your timing right you should arrive at your take off point about 10 seconds or so before the bulls, this allows you to have a quick jump or two up in the air to see if they are getting close. To be honest it is the noise of the crowd that will give you all the information, and you will know that the bulls are just about on you as you hear the thunder of peoples feet as they are steaming ahead of the bulls. This is when I take off on my run which takes me in front of the bulls with the rest of the runners, the bulls will then either pass by or I will hit the side, depending on how strung out they are. It is important at this point to be aware if there are more to come. The bulls are more likely to be split up if there has been a gap between the two rockets, and listen to the crowd, if they are shouting ‘Otra Otra’ it means that there is another one to come. Other useful phrases to watch out for are ‘loco toro’.
It is a matter of some debate as to where in the street you should run, right-hand side, left-hand side or in the middle. Some people swear that there are fewer people in the middle so you can have a clear run, however it is generally true that the middle is where the bulls steam through. As to which side you prefer that is a personal choice apart from some obvious points where the course bends, as a general rule always take the inside track at these points as the bulls will swing out on a bend. The unpredictability of the run is one reason why it is attractively dangerous, so the bulls can and do run at the sides as well as in the middle. If you suddenly see a bull coming along the side and you are trapped against a wall or fence, the tricky decision you have to take is have you the time to evade the bull (and you have to be fucking quick to do that from a standing start in a crowded street) or do you try the minimalist movement approach. This involves making yourself as thin as possible against the wall, sucking in your gut, (don’t worry your bollocks will retract of their own volition) and not moving. With a bit of luck the bull will steam on by, as most of the movement will be in the street in front of him. Well that’s the theory, but I give no refunds if you are shit out of luck and it does not play out as I have stated. The only caveat to this is if you see the bull is chopping it’s horns from side to side (like a boxer) you might want to be even more careful about that decision.
The last of the seven places to run is the Tunnel (Callejon) and this is one place that you must check out first before you run there. I made the mistake of getting caught in the Tunnel the very first time I ran, on 8th July 1976. I have even managed to find a photo of the incident, a pile up of bodies occurred at the point where the tunnel opens into the bullring and a 17 year old guy died at the bottom of the pile up. They thought at first it was asphyxiation but later it was discover he had been fatally gored. The bulls were stuck in the tunnel running into the pile of bodies that was about five feet tall, as people fled from the entrance to the Tunnel. It was my very first run and the only advice I had been given was don’t miss all the fun in the bullring after the run. “They might try and stop you getting in to the ring.” So as these sane people ran away from the Tunnel and danger, I, like a right ‘mug-punter’ ran past then pushing my way into the Tunnel. Oh Shit! (Of all the Oh Shit! moments in my life it has got to rank as one of the biggest.) Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can see in the picture the sensible people fleeing from the Tunnel. I did not realise at the time that there are big ‘slit-trenches’ on either side of the Tunnel that allow you to escape into big cavern like spaces behind the tunnel walls. I was stuck in the Tunnel with all the bulls…. Then they closed the outer doors (to enable them to clear the course) and I thought Oh Shit! Eventually they reopened the doors and the bulls went back out into the run (the course having been cleared). That was my opportunity to get out of the Tunnel the pile up was still about five feet tall but I ran up and over it straight into the bullring and I dived over the barriers into the crowd. I don’t think I stopped shaking for half an hour afterwards. That was my introduction to running with the bulls, because of ignorance I ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time and did not know what to do. These are certain bits of the course that are really dangerous but then again nowhere is that easy. It is ok to increase the danger by running where it can get a bit dicey, but it is just stupid to increase the danger by just having a go when you don’t really know what is going on.. Just remember no knowledge is ever wasted, in particular when you are putting your bollocks on the line.
