Bruce Sinclair is one of the top foreign bull runners and
has been coming to the Fiesta for the last nine years. He
has vast experience of the Pamplona Bull Run and has
recently feature in two National TV documentaries as well
as being regularly interviewed for magazine and newspaper
articles. Bruce is from Aberdeen in Scotland, and in
addition to running with the bulls he enjoys the party spirit
of Pamplona to the full. However, it will be Bruce who
knocks on your door at 6.30 in the morning to kick your ass
out of bed if you want to run with the bulls. He always
features in all the best bull running photos in the local
papers and running with Bruce will definitely be an
experience of a lifetime. Bruce will spend a lot of time with
our guests on the Bull run course showing everybody the
basics of running with the bulls in Pamplona. He has run
with the bulls over 70 times and his knowledge about the
fiesta and the run is extraordinary.
The following article was published in the No Bullshit Fanzine 2000
PRIMITIVE PURITY MUST BE PRESERVED
By Bruce Sinclair
What is it about the encierro that changes the lives of so many people? Running on
the horns is a life changing event that makes you re-evaluate what is really
important to you. I’m not suggesting that you start chanting as if you have found
God, but personally, it has made me appreciate the important things in life.
Regardless of how fast, sharp, or confident you feel, with every run, you know
there is a very slim chance you could die. Being brought down to earth like this is a
purely positive experience. Running on the horns is like staring death in the face
and serves only to remind us how fragile the human body is.
Why do the run? The truth is I enjoy it immensely and it gives me great
satisfaction. Churchill said that there is nothing as exhilarating as being shot at
with no outcome. An injury free run is something similar. I’ve heard many
eloquent reasons for doing the run - its a rights of passage, its an insult to
mortality, a way to face and cheat death. This may all be true, but I just find it great
fun. All animals except man know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.
San Fermin is surely an exception to this rule.
The run has been called the last peacetime opportunity for men to show bravery. I
believe anybody can be brave with a gun or indeed at the controls of an F-16. The
fact that the run is a voluntary act of bravery makes it almost unique. There is no
financial reward, no case of doing ones duty and no real appreciation. The best one
can hope for is the "trophy" of a photo or newspaper clipping and a compliment
from an experienced runner. The run has a lasting appeal because of the complete
absence of technology. All sports in the 90’s have become technologically oversophisticated. Every time I walk in the Grampians in Scotland I see people with the
latest high-tech equipment that science and money can provide.
There is something wonderfully pure about putting on a pair of running shoes and
going one on one against the meanest creatures Earth can muster. Some people join
the army looking for excitement. Some climb mountains. Others take risks with
other people’s lives by driving dangerously and others look for a shortcut by taking
drugs. There is no need to inject or snort for the ultimate high; you just need to run.
Technology has changed almost everything in 90’s sport. In the beginning men
created games that used whatever equipment was at hand. They competed with
spears, bows and arrows, stones and weights. It is not hard to imagine primitive
men daring each other to do something similar to the encierro.
The evolution of sports has created sportsmen with delusions of grandeur thanks to
their innovations. Are the cyclists of today any better, or is it their specialist
equipment? Do graphite tennis rackets, Big Bertha golf clubs or aluminium
baseball bats give the new generation an unfair advantage? Of course they do. In
contrast people will run with the bulls in the same way that they have for hundreds
of years. We may now wear mini trampolines (Nike Air) as opposed to the old
canvas plimsolls, but the human foot has been running for millions of years and
doesn’t really need that much help.
The best runners show how much can be achieved without the aid of fancy
equipment. Many sports have been transformed by technology to the point where
there is an underlying belief that the only way that you can succeed is to buy the
latest equipment. The best bits of equipment are the ones that money cannot buy skill and courage. Without them all the equipment in the world will not get you
onto the horns of a Spanish fighting bull. Another quality required is greed. You
need to want it more than the next person. Many people have good intentions and
want to expose themselves to danger. In most cases, in order to get on the horns
you have to fight. Of course, most people have no intention of getting close to a
bull. Often the nearest people get to a bull in Pamplona is when they visit the
Burger King. These people still have to be negotiated in order to get to the perfect
line. This is often easier said than done.
If you want the ultimate you have to be willing to pay the ultimate price and the
greatest danger will usually come from other people. Many runs have been ruined
by people who simply should not be in the street. Some will be drunk, others
panicking, others merely making up the numbers so they can say later " I ran with
the bulls". These people not only waste their own time, but also get in the way of
people trying to run on the horns. If something is worth doing its worth doing right.
I’ll never relate to the army of runners who see the run as "something to tick off the
list". It is an event that you have to participate in. As in all aspects of life, there are
people who achieve things and people who take the credit. Try to belong to the
first group, there is far less competition. While there are many beautiful runners,
there are far more who talk a good run. Be very wary of their stories. They struggle
to understand the basic concept that the idea is to run with the bulls, not away from
them.
It has been said that genius is one- percent inspiration and ninety nine percent
perspiration. If I ever find myself not perspiring at five minutes to eight I simply
will not do it. There is no secret to a good run. It comes from ignoring every
instinct in you body, putting yourself in a very dangerous position and then
improvising like mad. There is no such thing as an expert in Pamplona. An expert
there is someone who knows the worst mistakes that can be made and manages to
avoid them.
If you manage to pull off a good or even great run and want a record of it, prepare
to be disappointed. I have albums full of photos, but there are occasions when you
are left empty. The T.V. cameras can only follow one group at a time and what
seemed like forever on the horns, may only have been a couple of seconds.
Never feel you need to explain your run. Your friends will not need it and your
enemies will not believe you anyway. In the end, nobody can tarnish the wonderful
experiences you have there. While most people only battle with the lime scale in
the bathroom, you can participate in the ultimate battle. The battle with yourself.
The secret of being a bore it to tell everything. There is so much about San Fermin
and the encierro you have to discover for yourself. My only objectives are to run
on the horns, drink as much as possible and fight any change to the festival.
If I have any say in the matter, the next generation will inherit an encierro exactly
as we found it. Primitive yet pure. No advertising, no blockers, no drunks, no video
cameras. Just you and six of the most stunningly beautiful creatures you will ever
see. Unless they see you first.