Jeffrey Rath in Estafeta Curve

This Retegui and Zubieta’s photography relates to 2002. Bulls used 6 minutes and a half to finish the run, basically because a black bull, called "Emerald" 'of 601 kilos, It "stretched" in the alley near the square for two minutes. When he got up, went in the opposite direction causing all kinds of scares. However, the image of the Bullrun was that the one a man sitting on top of the animal, in the Estafeta Curve. Nobody knew about him, or who was, either how was he called , or why it ended on the backs of the animal. This atypical stamp was the cover of Journal of Navarre the next day, July 11. Two days later, the journalist Javier Lesaca walked around the running of the bulls in search of the man who had starred one of the most popular images from the recent bull run. And he found it! He was Jeffrey Rath, a Californian man of 49 years who was staying at the The Perla Hotel, working as an English teacher in Beijing. He related his enthusiasm about the running of the bulls since 1979 and posed with his friends for the camera of the journalist.

Fotografía de Zubieta y Retegui

Fotografía de Zubieta y Retegui

But that was not the whole story of Jeffrey runner. In 1985, on July 13, was gored by a bull, was gored in the buttocks and was hospitalised in Navarra’s Hospital. The 14^th the Mirura’s bulls were running, so he decided to "escape" from the hospital to run the last Bull Run. His friends tried to convince him otherwise.

I guess today will be in Tokyo or USA or maybe he is travelling to Pamplona!.

Courage and tenacity does not lack for sure!

David Crocket: From De Alamo to San Fermin Festival

Along with Joe Distler, Matt Carny, Jesse Graham, Chris Humphrey, Noel Chandler and The Bomber, Davy Crockett (descendant of the legendary hero of El Alamo Battle, Texas) reached Estafeta St. decades ago.

 They were the vanguard of a wave of Americans who came pushed by the winds of adventure and Hemingways history and tales. In their physical and inner journey towards the Bull Run there is friendship, party, risk, passion, promises and obsessions. In this walk they learned and came to draw bull runs that only the legs, head and the heart allowed to a very few. This is how they forged great and amazing friendships.

Keith Baumchen

Keith Baumchen, better known by his friends as The Bomber, became one of the most illustrious visitor from the United States attending San Fermin Festival more than 40 years .  Unfortunately he died last year at the age of  65 after failing to overcome a serious illness which have him struggling for months.

This California resident in Garmisch (Germany) and tireless traveller, was one of those Americans who never missed the appointment of the Opening Ceremony (Chupinazo) every July 6. Following Hemingways footsteps, he and other famous "touristy" as Joe Distler, Matt Carny, Jesse Graham, Chris Humphrey, Noel Chandler or Davy Crockett (descendant of the legendary hero of the Alamo) arrived to Estafeta St decades ago and decided to run every single time in the same place.

Bomber used to say that for him, the nine-days of San Fermin Festival were "a gift and a celebration of life," and claimed that from the very first time he visited Pamplona, he had never known another place where you will breathe the same festive atmosphere than at San Fermin.

Matew Dowsset

"In which direction run the bulls? “ A foreigner was asking him on his running of the bulls premier, Matthew Dowsset (Leeds, England, 1971). This was on July the 7^th, 2001. At that moment, he knew he was more prepared than the average. As a child, before becoming agent banking, he had seen on the news some pictures of the bull running during the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona and he said to himself: “One day I would do it”. That day, before entering tight mass gathered on the Town Hall at half past seven in the morning, he had done his homework’s and knew every theoretical bit about this famous race.

Back in England he admitted to a friend "I had read a lot, but when only in the moment I heard the rocket I understood everything ... There is no way to get ready for that." He had studied all about San Fermin Festival but there were no books or videos that explain the violence you are faced against in the last meters of the Santo Domingo´s Hill, just at the entrance of City Hall. "A bull slipped and stood for a moment looking at my friend. It was incredible…" The bull run was over, the bulls where already in the Bullfight Ring Corrals and all the runners where sharing their experience, the rush, the amazing feeling they felt but Dowsett didn’t share their feelings at all! He didn’t feel like them.

Once the Running of the Bulls is over, the runners face two possibilities: either you love it or you hate it. Matt, hate it but he was true to his promise: "I swore I'd bring  my mother, my girlfriend and a friend a San Fermin scarf I wore while running with the Bulls. He still had to run 3 times to make his promise. He managed to face the nightmares where the bulls lurked him all night long. The very last day he participated on the running of the bulls he decided to run the last bit and enter the Bullfight ring. This is how he described the experience: "From darkness and total lack of space we arrived into the plaza, and a total new scenario was in front of us. A mass of people under a huge blue sky where sitting on the Bullfight Arena cheering, all that open air, the smell of the beasts and the runners on the arena… This was a metaphor for what the running of the bulls means to me. At that moment I felt that would want to do it for ever”. Since then he has not stopped. He knows very welll Navarra´s festivals and has learned a lot down the path:  "I have been taught to know and control my stress and my fear in the most stressful situations. There is a balance between run and get closer to danger. You learn about your limits and self worthiness"

Noel Chandler

He had rented a room in a house that was three to four kilometers from Pamplona. He barely used the bed. It was more a place where to go every other day to change clothes and take a shower. "The most important thing was partying”. Noel Chandler a welsh from Newport (12 miles from Cardiff) aged 76 was an enthusiast about bullfighting.  

He discovered San Fermin recommended by the famous matador Antonio Ordóñez (now deceased). One morning stood in a doorway on Estafeta St to watch the Running of the Bulls and admitted he was frozen by fear when he saw the human landslide mixed with bulls hooves sounding like howls coming to him. "I remember so clearly the runner’s faces and the rush in my heart”. After this, he decided to learn how to run in the Dead Man Corner as it most the most coveted part and he wanted to become a true runner among all the foreigners participating in the Bull Run.

He was an amateur glimpsing the abyss, but was hooked by his promise to Mat Carny, from Chicago. This gentleman was a wounded soldier who had escaped the carnage of the Battle of Iwo Jima. Their history was really unique. During 20 years they participate and care for each other while running with the bulls. Always "next to each other”. They became such a good friends that when he Carny died he decided to take care of his daughter, Deirdre, who was six years old at the time.

In 2001, Noel had a history on his back of running with the bulls for 40 years on a raw as well as being Fujitsu Vice president and he decided to give up running as he could tell he was more a “bump in the road”. As bullfighting enthusiast he would use the term: “Cut his ponny tail” But in 2003, he decided to run one more time when he found out that the Conde de la Corte Livestock where participating in the San Fermin Festival again. This was a unique run, his last run.

Nowadays with half a century attending San Fermin Bull Runs, he has become one of the most respected runners. He watches the Running of the Bulls from his apartment facing Estafeta St. He used to rent a balcony but finally decided to buy an apartment that was the closest he could find to his adored “Dead Man Corner” intersection. He still describes the feeling as if it was the first time: "Every morning, when I see the herd turning the Dead Man Curve, that “smething” gets in my lungs and I cannot breathe properly!

IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO RENT A SPOT FROM A PRIVILEGED BALCONY, RIGHT IN THE DEAD MAN CORNER, TO WATCH THE RUNNING OF THE BULLS IN SAN FERMIN FESTIVAL, LOG IN THIS LINK AND YOU WILL BE AMAZED!

www.gsincoming.com

Tom Turley. New York

That morning of 1987, Tom Turley (New York, 46 years) was one of dozens of foreign graduatesvip in search of adventure that roamed the Plaza del Castillo in Pamplona. By chance he started talking to Todd, a young man that was having a drink with his family on a terrace. Tom was in Pamplona invited by a friend to experience the San Fermin Festival with no other plan than spending 24 hours partying, no sleep at all and not having a clue about Hemingway and his San Fermin Festival insights.

Red shirt, Tom Turley. Estafeta corner

Todd's father, Ray, asked him if they had a place to stay and invited him to spent five days in the luxurious La Perla Hotel (5*), a paradise reserved for very few such as Hemingway. Tom couldn´t believe his luck, and this is when he understood one of the most important lessons of San Fermin, true and genuine friendship.  

He promised Ray, he would always come back to this festivity. And up to today he has kept his word. The first time he got into the Running of the Bulls (encierro) the legendary Miura Livestock where the protagonist of the day. ."I must admit the seeds of fear where inside me”, he admitted. He jumped and rolled under the fence down the alley. In the distance he saw the paws scraping the floor. "What a feeling ..." He definitely caught the San Fermin rush virus and started learning the proper techniques and courage need it until he became a magician of running de bulls on the most dangerous & famous place: “ Dead Man Corner”, the intersection of Estafeta and Mercaderes Street. You could see him always wearing a red pullover (another San Fermin gift that was given to him by a friend in a cold morning while going to the daily Bull Run).

And he thought for himself: “Perhaps the best thing is not to touch what is right: the pullover, the promise to Ray about participating yearly in the Running of the Bulls and don’t miss a day thinking on the Bull Run". When faced with the question: Why run? He would always answer "It’s as difficult as answering why you love a woman: Because of her beauty, her intelligence? There are no words or way to explain it " But one thing is for sure: "I know you have to get close to death to savour what life is about."

IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO RENT A SPOT FROM A PRIVILEGED BALCONY, RIGHT IN THE DEAD MAN CORNER, TO WATCH THE RUNNING OF THE BULLS IN SAN FERMIN FESTIVAL, LOG IN THIS LINK AND YOU WILL BE AMAZED!