Janet CollinsThe Madness of Running with the Bulls
July 10th 2009 13:14
One of the most bizarra international events that runs annually has to be The Running of the Bulls, the largest and highest profile one being the one in Pamplona, Spain.
During the nine-day annual festival of San Fermin in Pamplona any one can run in front of bulls that have been let loose on the town’s streets. The streets are sectioned off to guide the bulls from the corrals through a trail of streets and to finally end up in a bullring.
Typically every year there are between 200 and 300 injuries, although some of them are minor and are often due to falls. Today, a man wasn’t so lucky. After being gored in the neck and lung during the run, Daniel Gimeno Romero, 27, from Alcala de Henares, near Madrid, was rushed to hospital but died.
He is the fifteenth person to have been killed during the run in Pamplona since 1910. Surprisingly, he is the first since 1995. Today’s run has been reported as one of the most dangerous in recent years. More than a dozen people were rushed to hospital after the event.
The danger doesn’t seem to deter a lot of people. There are around 2,000 who join the run each morning, most of them are young foreigners, but not all of them. One of the other runners seriously injured today was a 61 year old American man.
A lot of sports are dangerous and some of them are very dangerous. I would think you would have to be more than a little mad to run in front of charging bulls myself. Anyone can participate and there are very few rules. You don’t need any training and as long as you are eighteen and enter the venue before 7:30 you are free to run. You can't be intoxicated, of course, or do something really foolish like run in the opposite direction or incite the bulls.
One of the biggest dangers in participating in the run is that a bull may separate from the pack and this tends to make a bull disorientated. That is what happened today and the bull began to attack runners, and then charged back into the crowd attacking some more.
Seeking adventure is one thing but running in front of a pack of bulls just seems to take things a little bit far. Bravado, surely, cannot be worth that much.
Sourced: www.guardian.co.uk; wikipedia
Image credit: www.guardian.co.uk
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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Comment by Janet Collins
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I think that about the animals too. The madness of people doing it has always astounded me. Maybe some people just have a death wish.
Thanks.
Comment by Wilson Pon
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Comment by Janet Collins
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This type of adventure goes beyond any reason. You would want to have a death wish, surely!