For folks in the United States who read and hear about the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona each year, you may be able to participate without stepping on an airplane and headed overseas. A group of organizers have worked together to bring a set of bull running events to the States and the first one is scheduled for Aug 24th in Virginia.
The Great Bull Run is inspired by the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. It’s set to kick off Aug. 24 at a drag-racing strip south of Richmond, Va. A second event is planned for Oct. 19 at an Atlanta-area horse park that hosted events for the 1996 Olympics. More events are planned later for Texas, Florida, California, Minnesota, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
I am all for this sort of thing, but the risk for injury and even death is one not to be taken lightly. hopefully they go off without a hitch.
About 5,000 people have signed up to participate in the Virginia event, and the number grows by about 50 each day, said Rob Dickens, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Great Bull Run. And with 2,000 signed up for the Conyers, Ga., event, Dickens expects 5,000 to 7,000 to run there in October.
The U.S. events will last one day each, unlike the annual weeklong festival in Pamplona, when bull runs are held every morning. Author Ernest Hemingway wrote about the festival in his 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises,” which helped it gain worldwide notoriety and attract spectators from around the globe.
[AP]
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