Report From Pamplona

By Dorso McPickles
Pamplona, Spain
Filed July 9, 2006

Well I am back at the extremely hot Internet cafe. Just sitting here I can see the sweat emerging from my arms as I type this email....

Well as I concluded my prior email, the run is amazing - particularly after attending the bull fights last evening, you get a sense for the symbiotic relationship between the people and the bull.

You have to be in the race way by 700 am. At 700 am, the police close off the street and you are barricaded in. At that moment you realize there is no turning back. People conglomerate around the square at City hall with nervous excitement that leads to spontaneous song and random applause. People on the balcony yell their encouragement and stare in amazement at the mass below - perhaps out of sympathy or sheer incomprehension. At 730 am the cops begin to shove the crowd back to City hall and the start of the race. As the crowd is condensed a growing sense of panic sets in and as the cops push the crowd back, those in the back begin to push forward out of sheer fear. The result is a crusing mass that makes Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday look like a deserted corn field. There is a difference between a crown motivated by joy and exposed breasts and one motivated and driven by fear - trust me. Then the loudspeaker comes on to yell instructions. At this time a strange hush comes on the crowd. After the instructions, the police begin to make surgerical strikes within the crowd to remove drunks. I am not sure how you tell drunk from sober in a fully intoxicated crowd, but that is a concern for the cops (who by the way are swift and sudden in their retribution - I did not see one cop with a clean baton). Then the cops go into the crowd to remove the people that have chickened out. The crowd assails these people with whistles and jeers that while temporarily boosting moral also expose the truth that perhaps those are the few smart ones....

At 745 am, the police remove the barricade and allow the runners to start spreading across the course stopping them periodically to slowly spread the people out. We met two gentlemen from Las Vegas, Bob and Allen who provided great insight into the activity. Many of the Spaniards referred to Bob as ¨Pappa¨because of his Hemmingway-esque goatee and bravado.

Then the cannon sounds and the bulls are out - fear course through the crowd, the inexperienced start running. The experienced, and dumb, stay and wait, and wait. In the street with the bulls, an enternity is a five seconds, and seems like an eternity. We waited, then one wave of people ran...hold...then using our judgment, panic broke and we ran. Every thought, muscle, and concentration is forward. Do not trip on the hundreds of people in front of you, do not trip on a cobblestone, do not get distracted by the crowd, and avoid goring. A quick glance back and a runner goes down causing a pile up. I ran. Paramedics mounted on the guardrails yelled, ¨Run!, Run!¨ Then down the shoot, running, all you hear is breathing - yours, the bulls. At that point you don´t know and don´t care. Then you break through the doors and into the bull ring. The crowd is enraptured, screaming their approval. A wave of pride hits you.

I circled to the left to the end of the bull ring where I chose my spot to hop the fence and get out the ring. The people on the wall pushed me back. They would not let me enter. The area behind the wall was packed. It was then I realized fear. I was trapped in the ring with no way out and the crowd screaming. Scenes of the Gladiator raced through my mind as I suddenly realized, there was no choice - I was in the arena and I was not getting out.

The bulls behind me shot through the middle of the ring, and the crowd erupted again. One, two, three, four, five, six. All the bulls were in. A celebration broke out... you relax - for a moment.



Then suddenly a new bull is released into the ring. What? The bull charged us and we then spent the next minutes dodging the bull to the joy of the crowd. The initial tendency is to get as far away from the bull as possible - probably a general strategy for people facing fear. However, all it took was witnessing one
sweep of the bull along the wall, crushing those against it trying to hide, to realize the safest place was close to the bull, face to face. I don´t know if I have ever been as scared as when that first bull squared off against me, and I realized his sole attention was fixated on putting me on his horns. At that moment, you have no friends, no protection, no where to go, and thousands of people screaming hoping to see you get hit. It is you against the bull. My first such encounter resulted in a slip, a swell from the crowd as my hand went to ground...I caught my balance, and I slid to the right away from the charge. Breath...my groin ached from an old soccer injury, my finger I injured playing golf began to bleed, and my back was tweaked. I made it.

What a rush. By that time I realized some people had moved into the stands and I could go behind the wall, but I couldn´t. I mean I was in the middle of a bull ring in Spain dodging bulls in front of a packed house? Who voluntarily stops? It was amazing. To get the bull back out of the ring, they release a second larger hearding bull. It was a rush unlike any other.

Well last night we found a great space to sleep along the river (although my sleeping bag was still wet from the night before). I learned however, that if I
stuffed some toilet paper in my ears as earplugs and wrapped my red scarf around my eyes like a blind fold, it helped block out the noise and light.

Tonight, we FINALLY have our hotel. Trust me, my shower there this afternoon was borderline ritualistic. It felt good to be clean. I think Anderson appreciated it even more as he last showered before the flamenco show and his night lost in the bowels of Madrid (he can tell you about the gypsies). Needless to say, I am rested and tomorrow we will run again - one last time. Then it is back to Madrid for rest and a return home....

Wish me luck, and remember, it is never bad to be alive and be loved.

Love,

Jeff