Man recounts run with bulls

Jason Collier went to Pamplona, Spain last week expecting to get up close and personal with the bulls.

A week later, he left with just as much if not a greater appreciation for the people running with him and the community where the event took place.

“The Spanish know how to have a good time,” Collier said. “I did not see one fight, didn’t see one scuffle. But I saw multi-generations of the Basque people, grandparents, parents, little kids, everybody dressed in white, out having an amazing time.”

The annual Running with the Bulls takes place during Pamplona’s nine-day Fiesta of San Fermin, which honors the co-patron saint of the Navarra region of Spain.

The daily running of the bulls may be the highlight for the international media. However, during the rest of the days and evenings, hordes of locals and tourists mill through the streets of this charming city of 200,000 in Northern Spain.

And when the festival ends, it is a sad occasion. People sing songs like “Pobre de Mí” or “Poor Me,” mourning the closing of the annual event.

Collier spent much of his time carousing with locals and American, English and French tourists, the latter group during an evening so good that he felt too bad to run with the bulls the next day.

“I tried to stay up and sober up but I was too hung over,” Collier said. “So Monday it was a lot of walking through the city.”

Collier arrived in Spain on July 10. He wanted to run the next day but was forced off the course because of the huge crowd.

On Sunday, Collier and his roommates — an American and an Englishman known as Robo — started the run together. Robo had run with the bulls the last five years and played the role of mentor to Collier, who described his run as “terrifying.”

“Your mouth dries up, your legs turn to jelly and you say, ‘there is no way I am going to be able to do this,’ ” Collier said.

But once the race starts, a in 800-meter sprint that typically lasts no more than 2 1/2 minutes, adrenaline takes over, said Collier.

Chants of ‘toro, toro, toro’ (which means bull in Spanish) rain down on the participants when the bulls get close. One particular mad cow got so close to Collier that he leapt into a window sill that had been sealed off. That perilous jump to safety resulted in a bruised rib.

After skipping Monday, Collier ran for the final time on Tuesday, another harrowing experience. A man dressed in baggy clothes — a strict no-no in race etiquette — stumbled next to Collier as they raced into a tunnel that led into the arena.

The man took down Collier, who was able to get up quickly enough to dodge a bull behind him. However, the impact of his wrist hitting the sand in the arena caused a nasty cut and ruined a bull’s head tattoo he got the day before.

Despite the bumps and bruises, Collier said he’s already making plans for a return trip. He said his wife didn’t take to the idea of him doing this by himself, but quickly warmed to it.

That made the trip that much better, said Collier.

“She would send me text messages, let me know what point of the video I was on there and let me know how the kids were doing,” Collier said.

Collier’s next trip: a motorcycle ride to St. Louis in a few weeks. Collier said his love of travel is addictive and he doesn’t want to have any regrets in life.

“I really have one life and I want to live it 100 percent,” Collier said.