The Contagion of Terror

Today Will and I ran with the bulls at San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain. The experience was uniquely terrifying. The bulls are over half a ton and they race through the streets like a bobsled with swords. Yesterday the bulls completed the half mile run in just over two minutes. At that pace few men can outrun a bull.

Will and I pose before our run.

I have known only through movies the way terror explodes through a close crowd like a shockwave. But today I saw it first hand. When these monsters approached you could see it in everyone’s faces, you could hear it in the pitch of their voices, and you can watch the nervous energy shake off of their limbs. The first sight of the bulls as they rip through the mass of humanity inspired awe and fear. People scratched and clawed at cracks in the wall at a last-ditch effort to pull themselves out of the street. But with thousands of men doing the same, there was no where to go.

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