Travel With Me #15: Running With The Bulls in Pamplona 2017

July 14, 2017
Location: sitting in the Panaria cafe in Valencia, Spain
Time: 12:01 pm

It’s 3 days after the run and I still get goosebumps thinking back on this. The last few days have been pretty crazy. We left Pamplona, where the actual run was a few hours after the run and weren’t 100% sure where we were going to go… so last minute we ended up going to the train station and booking tickets to Valencia… a very nice city closer to the ocean in southern Spain.

While on the train, I decided to pull out my phone and write out an overview of the emotions, thoughts and everything that I experienced the day before, the night before, day of and during the Running With The Bulls event at the Festival of San Fermin Pamplona.

I’m not going to act all brave and tell you I had my shit together the whole time coming up to the run, because…well, I didn’t.

It was similar to how I felt before swimming with sharks in the Bahamas… Pretty nervous, but excited.

Okay so let’s get right into it…

the night before my girlfriend Sam and I had the pleasure of wandering around the town a little bit and seeing just endless crowds of people with white shirts, pants and red handkerchiefs and belts EVERYWHERE. It was truly an incredible site.

At around 10pm we headed back to the hotel and I started reading EVERYTHING I could about the running. Peoples stories of strategies, where to be, what to do, everything I could.

Sam also found where she would be for the run… ABOVE the bulls up in a balcony, like a normal, sane, human… unlike myself.

She found a great balcony overlooking Dead Man’s Corner

While I was reading through all of these peoples blog post encounters, just like you’re doing right now, I came across one that mentioned that every night at 23:00 (11 pm) there was an epic fireworks show. I looked at the clock, and it was 22:40 (10:40pm) just in time for us to walk out, grab a beer and watch the fireworks.

It was pretty impressive, although from the blog post I read it promised to be the best firework show anyone would ever see. Turns out I got really spoiled living in Orlando, Florida because I was right down the road from Disney and SeaWorld who both did unbelievable firework shows…and I’d see them pretty much every night.

I also worked at Universal Studios as one of my last jobs (bartending) so I was able to see amazing shows there as well.

Okay, back to the story… after the fireworks show was over, we headed home and decided to go to bed because I wanted to wake up around 6 to make sure I was ready for the run, even though it officially didn’t start until 8am.

4am: woke up… went back to sleep

5am: woke up again.. went back to sleep

I was both nervous and excited, so kept waking up not wanting to miss it.

5:45am: got up and out of bed and felt a calming sensation come over me. The dream I had left me assured i’d be fine.

6:30am I start walking towards the square extremely nervous

6:45 follow a few different groups of people until I find the actual course

7-7:30 walk up and down the course a few times and I see Sam up in the balcony she’s watching from

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