Thursday, July 9, 2009

Hook 'em, Horns


I guess it would fit the definition of a bucket list, but before I depart this dear earth, I'd like to run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. There would be a chance I could run with them and leave the earth at the same time.

It's the famous event held each July as part of a nine-day festival in Spain, a festival that began in 1591. In the morning bulls are let loose to run down narrow cobbled streets on the way to the afternoon bullfights. Thousands of tourists descend on Pamplona during this week. People can sign up to run in front of the bulls for the ultimate adrenaline rush.

The run is 840 meters through four streets, not quite half a mile. I can run a half mile in a little under three minutes. It would be WAY under three minutes if I knew a half-dozen angry bulls were breathing down my backside.

About 200 to 300 are injured during the festival every year. Since the event started in 1910, 14 have died. The last one was in 2003. One American, a tourist named Matthew Torrico, was gored to death in 1995.

Sounds like great fun.

1 comment:

nik v. said...

awesome! i recently found out that in new orleans every year, The Big Easy Rollergirls do something similar, the girls don their skates and horns and wiffle bats, and be the "bulls", and they have a run thru the streets of the French Quarter, its The Festival of San Fermin. Maybe a little less deadly than the real bulls...and a bit closer to home!