I am Returning to Run with the Bulls in Pamplona

It’s been a year since my near fatal goring July 9th 2014 in the bull run in Pamplona. I’m healed up and ready to run again. I leave July 4th for Pamplona. I will run with the bulls July 7th for the first time since the goring.

I am available for any media requests, (they are coming in from all over the world) The Australian just published a feature on my return: Pamplona bull runners must be prepared to die

I am completely accessible nearly 24 hours a day via email: billhillmann530@msn.com

I am also available via skype bill_hillmann

My USA cell is 773 793 1726

My Spanish cell is coming soon.

My memoir Mozos: A Decade Running With the Bulls of Spain, released last week and has already sold out of the first run, the second run is already available:

Mozos

I welcome all media to reach out to me.

Benjamin Miller Gored in Ciudad Rodrigo CBS & NBC National News and Fox Local in Atlanta

20 year old American Benjamin Miller narrowly survived a brutal goring this past weekend in Ciudad Rodrigo during the town’s Carnival del Toro Festival. The Bull flipped him and gored him repeatedly.

CBS contacted me and asked me into the local CBS Chicago Station to give commentary on the allure of running with the bulls in Spain.

The segment aired on National Television this morning. CBS gave my Memoir Mozos: A Decade Running With The Bulls Of Spain, big mention.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-benjamin-miller-gored-running-bulls-festival-in-spain/

NBC The Today Show also aired a segment which included me and Mozos.

http://www.today.com/video/today/56983492#56983492

Fox News Atlanta also requested my expertise on the subject and included a photo of Mozos.

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/28119964/marietta-man-gored-by-bull-in-spain

You can pre-order my memoir Mozos: A Decade Running With The Bulls Of Spain here.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mozos-bill-hillmann/1120450582?ean=9781940430539

You can also get my award winning debut novel The Old Neighborhood at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Old-Neighborhood-A-Novel/dp/1940430003

 

 

 

 

Bill Hillmann on Snap Judgment

I appeared on NPR’s Snap Judgment this week telling the story of the goring I famously survived last summer.

http://snapjudgment.org/running-bulls

The story is explored at length in my highly anticipated forthcoming memoir Mozos: A Decade Running with the Bulls of Spain available for pre-order here at Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mozos-bill-hillmann/1120450582?ean=9781940430539

My award winning, internationally acclaimed, debut Chicago novel The Old Neighborhood loosely based on my rough upbringing in Chicago is available at Amazon as well as Barnes and Noble: http://www.amazon.com/The-Old-Neighborhood-A-Novel/dp/1940430003

You can find more expansive version of my story in the Toronto Star/Washington Post Op-Ed I penned from my hospital bed in Pamplona: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/07/27/a_real_bull_story_i_got_gored_in_pamplona.html

Here’s a piece on my complex relationship with the Toro Bravo (Spanish Fighting Bull) which appeared in the Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-prj-literary-allure-bullfighting-bill-hillmann-20140905-story.html

 

My 2012

Sorry to any fan’s of this blog for my in-activity. I’ve been writing for money lately and this blog don’t pay.

That said, I thought I’d do a re-cap of my 2012. It was an incredible year in my life. It started out great when I landed the cover of New City Magazine in Chicago an 80K circulation weekly. I wrote the article and took the photos.

Later Akashic Books turned down my debut novel The Old Neighborhood by a split decision in their editorial board. It broke my heart but I refused to lay down and die.

Then the big one as far as my print-journalism career goes. I landed a gig for a feature story with the Chicago Tribune Printer’s Row Journal.

Then it was off to Pamplona for my biggest payday to date as a writer with Outside Magazine. It was an eight post blog with two separate articles and the most comprehensive coverage of Fiesta in the English Language in 2012. Here’s my author pages at Outside.

http://www.outsideonline.com/author-bios/Bill-Hillmann.html

Of course it wasn’t all fun and triumph.

On the second day of runs a highly aggressive Steer decided to buck me and put the possibility of my fathering children in the future in jeopardy. You can read more about that here…

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/events/The-Running-of-the-Bulls-Day-3.html

But I dusted myself off again and through the high level of pain put together the best Fiesta of my life as a mozo.

It was going really good when this happened on the thirteenth.

I ran stride-for-stride on either-horn in near perfect-sink with Jose Manuel Pereira one of the greatest Spanish runners running today, he’s also a Pastore at Sanse wich is probably the most elite run in Spain.

I have vivid dreams about running the Callejon like this. It was the best run of my life, somewhere around 80 yards directly on the horns. It may have been on par with the runs of the all-time great American runners like Joe Distler and Matt Carney if it hadn’t ended like this…

I smacked into the sand but luckily I didn’t disrupt the running of the animal and he mercifully didn’t step on me (we were pretty close friends by then).

This also marked my fiftieth run in Pamplona and it couldn’t have been more dramatic and incredible.

Then it was to the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland to complete a five-year long quest to represent Chicago against Edinburgh in a story slam. It was a sold out past-capacity event and I narrowly edged internationally renown author Jenni Fagan in our head to head heat. Amazingly I landed yet another Chicago Tribune Printer’s Row Journal article, this time covering the event.

Cool-ass tag line I know. My pal Alexander Fiske Harrison also covered the event for the Spectator an 80K circulation weekly in London.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/123526/alexander-fiske-harrison-enjoys-a-39story-slam39-at-the-edinburgh-fringe/

Basically Xander raved about it and officially established me an acclaimed storyteller.

From there my lovely, talented, beautiful, generous, humorous, sweet, did I mention pretty wife Enid Maldonado allowed me a second trip to Spain. It had become quite an obbsession of mine to travel to Cuellar Spain for the oldest Encierro of all. It was complete insanity. The first morning the bulls got loose in the forest outside town. So the town of Cuellar released six fighting bulls into the street one by one. Creating one of the most legendary runs ever (in my humble and unbiased opinion) – one full hour of Suelto’s.

It came to an end when my friend Angus Ritchie and I led the final Suelto through the Callejon together.

It didn’t end there two days later during by far the greatest run of my life, the morning ended with Xander and I leading the final Suelto through the Callejon.

Still later I snuck over to Sanse for a couple runs and was involved in the worst pile-up of the year. After leaping the pile, I did what I’d hoped I’d have the courage to do if I ever got in the situation. I went back to help pull runners out and successfully yanked one guy out by his buttox. In a scary twist this pile-up seriously injured Jose Manuel, it hospitalized 19. I walked around in ghost-white shock the rest of the day.

I came home from the trip and guess what? The Chicago Tribune was interested in a story but this time for the Tribune Travel Section and yep it ended up on the bottom cover. My new friend Nicolas Haro published his photo alongside it.

I was in awe of everything that’d happened. I even made a good chunk of change on construction sites that summer for the first time in two years.

Things were going really good when I sat down and pounded out a re-write of my novel for an interested agent who I’d met in Edinburgh. Then, on a whim I decided to send it over to my friend Jacob Knabb over at Curbside Splendor Publishing who I’d been hearing great things about. Sure enough after about a week Jacob accepted The Old Neighborhood and we signed the contract at the Bobby Hitz fights a few days later.

Curbside is everything I wanted in a Publisher. They’re young, smart, energetic, talented, ambitious and excited about my novel. They have a highly respectable catalog which has been reviewed frequently by the Chicago Tribune and other notable publications. They have a book coming out soon by the outstanding humorist Samantha Irby which I believe could sell half a million copies. I couldn’t be happier.

That was gonna be it but then like a last second shot in a game that’s already been won, I published a long over due interview I did with the late great George Whitman, the longtime owner of Shakespeare and Company Bookshop in Paris with legendary online news outlet Salon.com.

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/14/the_greatest_bookseller_of_all_time_shakespeare_and_company_owns_me/

It was an outrageously good year and I couldn’t be more grateful.

But still, I’ve decided in 2013 that it’s time to get serious, quit screwing around and finally get on with my life.

Fonfara on a Steady Road

8 Count Productions put on a strong night of boxing at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago Friday Night.

Chicago-based contender Andrzej Fonfara (21-2, 12KOs) stopped former world Champion Byron Mitchell (29-10-1 22KOs) in the third round to claim the USBO Light Heavyweight title. Fonfara came out in bombastic fashion. He drilled combinations through Mitchell’s guard. Everything was set-up by a Golota-esc jab and punctuated with crunching-hooks to the body. Mitchell was badly-hurt in the first thirty seconds of the opening-round and never recovered. Fonfara floored Mitchell late in the round. Mitchell beat the count and Fonfara went in for the kill. Many at ringside urged referee Celestino Ruiz to stop the bout. Ruiz likely could not hear them through the enormous and raucous Polish-American crowd. The audience did not take their seats until well into the break between rounds. Mitchell survived the second on shaky legs then was floored in the third. Corner man George Hernandez snatched the towel from another Second and furiously threw it into the ring. It sailed across the entire ring and into the ringside seats. Referee Ruiz didn’t see it so Hernandez climbed up on the apron and got into the ring before Ruiz realized the bout was over.

24-year-old Fonfara is stampeding forward in his career after some early bumps in the road. He was stopped by Derrek Findley on ESPN in 2008. Light Heavyweights hit their prime when they’re about thirty years old and Fonfara is set to be a 30 or even 40 win fighter by the time he reaches that age. It’s hard to say exactly who’s guiding this young Pole’s career but whoever it is, they have a ton of boxing wisdom.

In the co-main event Viktor Polyakov (11-0, 6KOs) defeated Derrek Findley (18-8, 11KOs ) of Indiana by unanimous decision for the USBO Middleweight Title. Polyakov is one of several foreign fighters out of Sam Colonna’s deep stable at Chicago Boxing Club. The Ukranian is a very busy boxer with good power in both hands and it showed in his steady victory over Findley. The once power-punching terror Findley has in recent fights resigned himself to a more quiet and steady boxing-pace. This seems to go against his natural-aggressiveness and the raw-physicality he possesses. It was a thunderous over-hand right that stopped Fonfara in ‘08, the punch is undeniably one of Findley’s world-class attributes. Yet, Findley did not throw the baseball-punch until desperation set in, in the final round. He caught Polyakov with the over-hand several times and hurt the Ukranian twice but it was too little too late. Scores were 99-91 twice and 96-94.

Super Middleweight Paul Littleton (3-0 3KOs) stopped Guy Packer (4-36-2, 1KO) of Michigan in the second round of their four round contest. It was the second TKO victory in under a month for Littleton who was a standout amateur in Chicago and won the Midwestern Trials in 2008 and the Chicago Golden Gloves several times. It’s vital for a young-prospect to stay busy and Littleton hopes to have eight to ten fights under his belt by this time next year. He’s definitely on pace to do that.

Featherweight Raeese Aleem (2-0, 1KO) of Michigan defeated spoiler DeWayne Wisdom (2-3, 1KO) of Indiana by unanimous decision in their four round contest. Coming off Wisdom’s upset victory over Russle Fiore many at ringside hoped he could pull off another surprise. Aleem wasn’t having it and established himself as the harder-puncher in the early rounds. In the fourth, Wisdom did find some magic and landed several potent hooks with his back to the ropes. It wasn’t enough to sway the judges but Wisdom took the bout on two day’s notice and should walk away with a moral victory under those circumstances.

Chicagoan Adan Ortiz knocked out Ricky Lacefield (0-3) of Nebraska in the first round of their Super Flyweight bout. Though it was his debut, Ortiz was dominant early. Late in the round a sneaky-left found Lacefield’s solar-plexus. Lacefield wasn’t able to beat the count.

Debut Welterweight Chad McKinney of Illinois defeated Cleveland-based Clifford McPherson (2-8-2 1KO) by unanimous decision.

 

 

 

Smokin’ Joe Frazier Tribute

To Box, is to hit and not be hit. Many in the sport fail to truly understand the art of pressure-fighting. They perceive it as a brutal style—ugly and grueling. What they are un-able to see is a nuanced, strategic, and defensive display of boxing.

When Smokin’ Joe Frazier entered the ring, he never ceased moving his head. This is a defensive and elusive measure. Frazier’s style of head-movement was unorthodox; to the untrained eye it appeared herky-jerky. It was not. It was Frazier’s own inner-rhythm and he imposed it on his adversaries.

Frazier was a squat-puncher who landed incredibly-powerful, clean-blows on his opponents. All of those clear-shots set up by defense, timing and craftsmanship. He made you miss and he made you pay. Joe Frazier; in that ilk of Jack Dempsey, Jake LaMatta and Rocky Marciano, embodied the art of the pressure-fighter.

In many of those classic exchanges with Ali in their Trilogy, Frazier made his swift-handed foe miss with entire combinations. All while in close quarters. And there was Frazier’s immortal left-hook perpetually-pumping upward from those stout thighs, punishing his
opponents and dismantling their will to continue. Joe Frazier thrilled us with his determination, his heart, his skill and whether we knew it or not—his artistry.

Muhammad Ali was deeply saddened by the loss of his most colossal opponent. A family member told me, Ali and Frazier planned to team up to put on a benefit for both Cancer and Parkinson’s research February 18^th at the MGM Grand. Ali released this statement: “The world has lost a great Champion. I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration. My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones.”

Great fighters draw out the immortality in their rivals. Frazier and Ali brought it out of each other in a way that will never be duplicated. Boxing has lost one of its most profound warriors of all-time and possibly the finest-tuned pressure-fighter ever to step through the ropes—Smokin’ Joe Frazier.

Donovan George set to Face Librado Andrade.

The IBF Super Middleweight Title Eliminator bout between Donovan George (22-1-1,
19KOs) and Librado Andrade (30-4, 23Kos) is set to take place on December 17th in Mexico. The bout will be televised in Mexico as well as the US. Fight venue TBA.

Before Chicagoan Donovan George gets his shot at Lucian Bute’s IBF Title he’ll need to
exorcise a demon in his career. George’s sole defeat was at the hands of a big Mexican Super-Middleweight with long-arms named Francisco Sierra in 2010 on ESPN Friday Night Fights. Francisco Sierra was a last second replacement for George. Sierra came in well over the weight limit. George made a gutsy decision and chose to take the fight anyway. There’s a rule in boxing, never give up weight to a heavy-handed fighter and Sierra is a knock out artist.  George was hurt several times in the bout, knocked down then dropped again after the bell in the seventh. The fight ended in a technical decision in favor of Sierra. Six months later George obliterated undefeated-prospect Cornelius White inside of one round. It began with crackling George right-cross which floored White. George then bombarded White putting him down twice more before the bout was called. In April, George dominated Maxwell Taylor for 7 rounds before stopping him in the 8^th to claim the USBA Super Middleweight title. In many ways George is resurrected. He’s riding a two fight KO streak and ranked #4 in the world by the IBF.

Enter Librado Andrade. Andrade is a big Mexican Super-Middleweight with long-arms, good power and a granite-chin. Andrade has been to the mountain-top. In 2007 he battled Mike Kessler in an action-packed title-fight—losing a unanimous decision. Many in the boxing world believe Andrade knocked out Lucian Bute in their 2008 title-fight. Bute was given 18 seconds to recover after being battered around the ring and collapsing into the corner. The bout concluded before Andrade could finish the job. Yet, in their 2009 rematch Bute devastated Andrade in the 4^th round—knocking him down with a perfectly timed left cross. Later in the round Bute KO’d Andrade with a beauteous left upper-cut to the liver. Since then Andrade has been defeated by journeymen Aaron Pryor Jr. though more recently Andrade KO’d the limited Matt O’Brien.

The winner of the Donovan George Librado Andrade title eliminator will ascend to
challenge Lucian Bute for his coveted IBF world title. The definitive questions entering the contest are: at age 33, does Andrade have enough left in the tank to contend for another world title? Or, can George exorcise this sole demon in his career and defeat the only man to have a claim at beating Lucian Bute?

Tune in December 17^th to find out.

Team Chicago:

After a long saga, with the help of my Co-host and Co-producer Luis Perez of Vocalo FM, my work on the National Golden Gloves is finally complete. This is the inagural episode of a new boxing show devoted to the Chicago Boxing Community Chi-Box Radio on Vocalo 89.5 FM.

(Click Play Below)

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Julen Madina Entrevista

Traductore intérprete para la entrevista: Enid Maldonado

En el último día de la fiesta de San Fermín del 2011, el legendario corredor
Americano Joe Distler me invito a un desayuno (un honor inmenso). Y quien entra
de repente sino Julen Madina, el Michael Jordan del encierro. Madina se retiró
justo antes de que empezara esta fiesta, después de 40 años de correr con los
toros. En su discurso de despedida Madina nos dijo que mientras San Fermín se
acercaba su corazón decía si pero su cabeza decía no. A continuación Julen nos
regala un escalofriante relato acerca del día en que fue casi corneado a muerte
por un toro del rancho Jandilla en el 2004. Después de esto Madina continúo
corriendo en el más alto nivel por otros seis años.

HILLMANN: ¿Qué significan para ti los toros?

MADINA: El toro para mí es un animal mitológico que significa la fuerza, el poderío. El
toro, estéticamente me gusta, me parece un animal muy bello. Después de todos estos años de poder disfrutar el toro en la calle, pues me tiene enamorado. Cuando lo vez, cuando intentas conducirlo, cuando le das en los cuartos traseros con la mano parece que le estas dando a una roca. Es un animal con una potencia brutal, un animal bellísimo.

HILLMANN: ¿Qué significa para ti el encierro?

MADINA: El encierro, pues, ser capaz de dominar o controlar la carrera de ese ser tan
brutal, tan poderoso, tan maravilloso. Y de alguna manera el te acepta a ti como el líder de la manada. Ser capaz de conducirlo y llegar a la plaza. Cuando has hecho esto, llegar con un toro en la espalda, pisar la arena, para mí es como si terminara la faena, es lo máximo.

Me siento en ese momento, no sé, un ser especial, por encima de todo, me siento
como si estuviera flotando en una nube.

HILLMANN: ¿Por eso es que te comprometiste a correr el encierro por
tanto tiempo?

MADINA: No fue compromiso, fue un enganche personal. Yo creo que soy adicto a la sensación, ha sido mi droga. Esa emoción, esos miedos, esos miedos impresionantes que he tenido antes de correr pero que he sido capaz de controlar. Las emociones que me ha dado el controlar el correr a lo largo del tiempo, pues son maravillosas.

Ahora realmente lo estoy pasando mal. Por eso quisiera, el año que viene, tener algún
tipo de enganche con el encierro, retransmitiendo a través de televisión, haciendo algún tipo de trabajo para alguna cadena televisiva o algo que me justificara estar en la calle con mis compañeros. Tener un cordón umbilical con el encierro para dar algo de lo que yo he recibido hasta ahora.

HILLMANN: ¿Como supiste que era tiempo de retirarte?

MADINA: Que te digo, bueno, mi cabeza cambio desde el nacimiento de mi niña. Yo sabía también que estaba al final de un ciclo. Tome esa decisión y bueno, lo he pasado muy mal. Intenté aislarme para no oír de los encierros, como si el tiempo se detuviera, como si viviera en una burbuja. Ha sido absolutamente imposible. Como mi hija era muy pequeña y sigue siendo muy pequeña, demanda mucho trabajo y mucha atención. De alguna manera me he enfocado a ella. Cuando oía o veía una imagen (del encierro) aunque fuera escaza, me hacia llorar. He llorado bastante. Después ya lo he ido aceptando como una realidad y me he volcado en mi hija y eso es lo que me ha hecho de alguna manera superar y terminar.

HILLMANN: ¿Cuál es el recuerdo o el momento más importante que tienes del encierro?

MADINA: No hombre, hay momentos puntuales, han sido momentos en los cuales he visto cosas que se salían de lo que es la normalidad. He visto cornadas con resultado
de muerte.  Yo he visto ya tres muertos delante mío.  Un toro me cogió en el 96 y me rompió cuatro costillas. Después en el 72 me llevo un toro colgando 50 metros y en el 2004 pues tuve lo peor, cinco cornadas ahí en el callejón. Esos han sido los momentos especiales, pero momentos de carrera he tenido muchos. Todos los días que yo entraba a la plaza con un toro. Cuando bajaba por telefónica con uno, dos, tres toros, entraba a la plaza y le daba esos toros al doblador. Para mi han sido momentos mágicos y de esos tengo muchísimos. Quizá uno de los más espectaculares fue con los Dolores Aguirre. Llame mucho la atención de la prensa porque entré con seis toros a la plaza, corrí casi cuatrocientos metros con ellos y cuando llegue a la plaza levante el dedo al cielo como diciendo “esto ya es lo máximo”.

HILLMANN: ¿Qué paso en el 2004?

MADINA: En el 2004 yo bajaba corriendo Jandillas como cualquier otro día. Me acuerdo
perfectamente de los previos. Iba bajando por telefónica y había muchísima gente. El encierro era muy sucio, la gente se caía, se cruzaban y no se veían bien los toros. Yo tenía los toros muy pegados a la espalda, muy cerquita. Trataba de controlar la carrera y al mismo tiempo miraba para abajo para ver el espacio. Vi como, por el lado izquierdo del callejón, se estaba formando un tapón muy grande, la gente estaba cayéndose y apilándose. Entonces decidí ir hacia la derecha de la pared del callejón para librar y no tener problemas. Entre ahí con un toro muy pegado a mi espalda. Lo que no se podía ver es que detrás de ese primer montón había otro. Choque directamente y caí. El toro lo llevaba bravo y en cuanto caí me envistió. Me cogió por el cinturón y me zarandeo. Trate de soltar mi cinturón pero no pude.

El me siguió jalando y después me soltó. Yo estaba encima de un grupo de gente caída y me mantenía sin moverme porque yo sabía que hay mucha gente que le grita al toro y que este puede levantar la cara y se va a ir; o es lo que yo esperaba. Pero el toro siguió corneando y corneando y así estuvo 22 segundos porque nadie consiguió llevárselo. Lo que recuerdo aparte de las cornadas era un sonido, zum, zum, como una cuchillada. El toro me cogió del glúteo y me levanto, me engancho en su cuerno. Ahí yo note un dolor importante. Me llamaban la atención los bufidos del toro, la energía con la que me atacaba. Escuchaba el ruido de los cascos y el olor a quemado de los cascos rascando contra el suelo. Estaba tumbado boca abajo y me mantenía quieto, muy quieto. Me dio una paliza terrible. Yo en ese momento me di cuenta que podía ver la calle porque el montón se estaba rompiendo. Y pensé, lo que no ha hecho el toro lo va a hacer la gente, va a venir una avalancha de gente y me van a masacrar, me van a machacar, me van a pisar.

Mearrastre y me metí debajo de la batera buscando refugio y espere a que llegaran las asistencias. Me estaba quedando dormido por la cantidad de sangre perdida. Me decía a mí mismo, respira despacio, por la nariz y por la boca, controla la respiración. Porque controlar la respiración hace que la sangre vaya brotando más lentamente. Con un ritmo cardiaco más acelerado la sangre va circulando más rápido y te desangras más rápido. Yo me decía, si algún día esto tenía que pasarte el mejor sitio es aquí en Pamplona, que es donde hay mejores médicos y mejores medios. Hay que estar tranquilo, respira y espera a la asistencia. Después oí voces, eran los paramédicos de la cruz roja. Me desgarraron la ropa y me hicieron un torniquete. Uno de ellos me metió un puño en la herida de la pierna izquierda para parar la hemorragia. Me llevaron hasta el patio de caballos y ahí a la enfermería de la plaza me operaron de urgencia.

HILLMANN:¿Que es lo que deseas para el futuro de los encierros?

MADINA: Primero que el encierro sobreviva. El encierro de Pamplona, que lo cuidemos,
que la gente corra de blanco para recuperar la estética y el respeto que se está perdiendo. El gran riesgo del encierro es que se puede morir de puro éxito.  Se ha hecho muy grande y su gran enemigo es lo popular que es.  Todo el mundo, sobre todo cuando vienen de partes muy lejanas, buscan algo mitológico, una especie de rito iniciático en donde demuestras tu valentía. Quizá todo eso forma parte de la historia del encierro, pero el encierro es mucho más. Con solo esos conocimientos no puedes participar apropiadamente. Hay quienes no saben que lo que te estás jugando es la vida o tener un percance muy grave, porque un toro te puede matar. Ahora que ya me he retirado, espero tal vez acercarme un poco al público que se interese para enseñarles o para ayudarlos a
correr. Para que esta gente pueda participar con más conocimiento, sabiendo que hay que hacer y en lo que se están metiendo.

Para más información de Julen Madina y su escuela para corredores visita http://www.julenmadina-sanfermin.com

Julen Madina Complete Interview

Translator and interpreter for this interview: Enid Maldonado

On the final day of Fiesta 2011 legendary American runner Joe Distler invited me to the runner’s breakfast, (an immense honor). And who walks in but Julen Madina, the Michael Jordan of Bull Running. Madina’d retired just before the start of this year’s fiesta after 40 years of running with the bulls. In his retirement speech Madina said that as this year’s fiesta approached, his heart said yes but his head said no. In the following Julen gives a chilling account of the day he was nearly gored to death by a Jandilla bull in 2004. After that day Madina continued to run for six years at an elite level.

HILLMANN-What do the bulls mean to you?

MADINA: The bull for me is a mythical animal, its force, its power. I like the bull, it’s a very beautiful animal, and after all these years of being able to enjoy the bull in the street well…I’m in love with this animal.Whenyou see it, when you try to lead it, when you slap him in the back quarters it seems like you’re hitting a rock. It has an extraordinarily brutal force. It’s a gorgeous animal.

HILLMANN-What does the Encierro mean to you?

MADINA: The encierro… well… to be able to somehow dominate or control this ever powerful brutal animal, this wonderful being; when it somehow accepts you, like the leader of the herd and that you are able to lead it all the way to the arena. When you have done this with a bull at your back, to step on the sand, for me it’s as if the task is completed, it’s the maximum. I feel then like I don’t know… like a special being, more than the shepherd, I feel as if I were floating in a cloud.

HILLMANN-Is that why you committed yourself to the run for all these decades?

MADINA: It was not commitment, it was a personal enlistment. I crave it, I have been like an addict to the sensation; that emotion, those fears, those impressive fears I’ve had before running but which I have been able to control. The later emotions that running and controlling those fears gave me were great.

Thetime away has been difficult. Today I’d like to work either as a correspondent or a commentator on TV or something that can justify me being in the street with my comrades. To have an umbilical cord with the encierro, being able to give something for all which I have received.

HILLMANN-How did you know it was time to stop?

MADINA: What can I say, my head changed since the birth of my young daughter. I also knew that I was at the end of a cycle. I’ve had a very bad time. I have tried to isolate myself from the encierros as if the time stopped, as if I lived in a bubble. It has been absolutely impossible but also my daughter was very small and continues to be very small. She demands a lot of work and attention. Every time I heard or saw an image (of the run) brief as it was, it made me cry.  I’ve cried a lot. I’ve focused on my daughter and that is what has somehow helped me move on and help me to find closure.

HILLMANN-What’s your most potent memory of the encierro?

MADINA: Man… There are many moments; there have been moments where I have seen things that stepped out of normality. I have seen fatal gorings.  I have witnessed 3 deaths. I got gored in 96 and I broke four ribs, in 72 a bull got me and dragged me 50 meters and in 2004 well, I had that very bad one, I got gored five times in the tunnel.

Important moments as a runner I have had many, every time that I entered the arena with a bull, every time that I lead a bull, two bulls, three bulls down Telefonica and into the arena and then I give them to the Dobladores (men in charge of caping the bulls into the corrals). Those for me have been magical moments. Perhaps one of the most spectacular was with the Dolores Aguirre ranch, I was all over the news because I ran in front of six bulls for almost four hundred meters. When I entered the arena I pointed my finger to the sky like saying ‘this is the maximum’.

HILLMANN-What happened in ‘04?

MADINA: In 2004 I was running with the Jandillas, like any other day. I remember very clearly everything that happened.  I was coming down on Telefonica and there were lots of people, the encierro was very dirty, people falling over, crossing in front of me, I couldn’t see the bulls. I had the bull at my back very close. I was trying to stay under control, I had to keep looking down and measuring the space. I saw that by the left side of the tunnel, a very great cork was forming, people falling over and piling up, I decided to go towards the right side of the tunnel to avoid the problems. I entered that side with a bull very close to my back.

What I could not see is that behind that first pile there was a second pile. I fell over directly on top and the bull was very bravo(aggressive) so as soon as I fell it gored me. It lifted me from my belt and began to shake me vigorously. I tried to grab my belt buckle to loosen my belt but I could not loosen it, so the bull continued hauling me then he dropped me. I landed on top of a group of people and I lay very still, without moving because I knew that there where lot of people who were going to shout so the bull would raise its face and go away or that is what I hoped. But the bull stayed with me and he kept on goring me. It lasted twenty-two seconds and nobody was able to take the bull away. Aside from the goring’s; I remember hearing this noise a zzzz zzzz like stabbing sound.

The bull then took to me from my butt-cheek and lifted me and kept me on his horn, then he dropped me and I noticed a severe pain. The other thing that called my attention was the bellows of the bull, how it snorted, the energy with it was attacking me and I could hear the noise that the hooves made in the ground and the burned scent of the hooves scratching against the ground. I was laying face down and I stayed quiet, quiet, quiet.  He gave me a terrible beating. I remained in the ground totally crushed and I remember that then I thought, I can see the street so the pile was being broken and I thought, what the bull didn’t do now the people will. There is an avalanche of people coming and they are going to massacre me, they are going to crush me and step on me.

So, I dragged myself and I got underneath the wall (an opening low in the tunnel) looking for a refuge, hoping that the help would arrived soon.  I remember that I was falling sleep because of all the blood loss. I was talking to myself a lot, I would say ‘breathe slowly, breathe through the nose and your mouth, control the breathing, because if you breath slowly the blood flows slowly,  with an accelerated heart rate the blood circulates faster and you will bleed to death faster, calm down, breath slowly’. I thought if someday this had to happen this is the best place, here in Pamplona, they have the best doctors and best resources. They’ll help you, now wait and be calm. That is when I heard voices and I saw the Red Cross guys. They tore my clothes and made a tunicate. One of them put his fist in my wound, the one in the left leg to stop the hemorrhage and they carried me to the horse’s patio, and they performed surgery at the nurse’s station right inside the arena.

HILLMANN-What are your hopes for the future of the encierro?

MADINA: First, that encierro’s in general survive. And for the encierro at Pamplona, that people take care of it, that they run dressed in white to recover the aesthetic and that they recover the respect that it has been losing. The great risk is that the encierro dies by success. The encierro has gotten very big and that precisely is its great enemy, that it is a very popular thing.

Now people come from very distant parts like the US, looking for something mythological, a rite of passage or a place to show how brave they are. And that can be part of the history of the encierro but the encierro is much more, way more and with only that idea, it is not possible to participate in the right way. They don’t know that they are playing with their lives or risking suffering serious injury because a bull, well, a bull can kill to you.

Now that I’ll no longer run, my hope is that perhaps a group of people would come and I can teach them or help them so they can participate safely, with knowledge of what they are going to do and what are they getting into.

For more information on Julen Madina and his school for runners go to http://www.julenmadina-sanfermin.com/