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The knees of more than 400 participants started to shake as sweat dripped into their eyes and dirt was kicked into the air, anticipating the chaos about to be unleashed before each run.Their goal was simple: Don’t stand in the way of a 1,500-pound bull.
“I know that feeling the first time you’re doing it,” Running of the Bulls USA volunteer Justin Kufahl said to the crowd. “(The) ‘What was I thinking when I signed up for this, this sounded cool a couple of days ago but now it’s a little bit scary’ (feeling).”
The fourth-ever Running of the Bulls USA began in Cave Creek Friday evening with the inaugural charity bull run and a media run where members of the media participated in a “guinea pig run,” event director Phil Immordino said.
“(We) had to kind of work out the kinks and that has a lot to do with, not only the bulls, but also the runners because it’s a matter of instructing the runners properly,” he said.
Kufahl, who has participated in numerous bull running events in Pamplona, Spain, instructed runners on the proper protocol of bull running. He assured the crowd the bulls were only rodeo bulls and not the fighting bulls similar to those used in Spain.
“The way they behave is totally different. Fighting bulls come after (runners) and (try) to kill (runners), these bulls are just going to run down the middle and probably wonder what’s going on here,” Kufahl said. “So I personally am not concerned nearly (as much) as I would be in Spain.”
The ASU Undie Run and Fresh Start Community Services, a nonprofit existing to help ex-offenders successfully re-enter the community, were the benefactors of Friday’s charity bull run.
Undie Run representative and marketing junior Sebastian Giannola went to Cave Creek to participate but ended up participating a bit too much.
“It was pretty fun … getting nailed in the hip didn’t feel too good,” Giannola said. “All of sudden everyone’s like, ‘The bulls are coming!’ I saw one coming right at me and just kind of nailed me in side of the hip a little bit.”
Saturday’s multiple bull runs brought most of the crowds as more than 250 runners dressed in peculiar, bull-antagonizing outfits.
Recent ASU communications graduate Julius Isoa and his friends attended the rare event in hopes of seeing someone get run over.
“I hope to just run as fast as I can and I just want to see someone get ran over. That’s all I want to see and (it) not be me,” Isoa said. “I want to be close enough to see the action but not actually be part of the action.”
While most participants were nervous and fearful of what could happen, some were fearless about intentionally wanted to make contact with a bull, such as 19-year-old Motorcycle Mechanics Institute student Brooks Williams.
“I got lifted full on into the air,” Williams said. “I waited for it, I was trying (to) touch the big one and it backfired.”
The three-day event contained plenty of bull runs for both spectators and runners but professional bullfighters also delighted patrons with an exciting bullfight.
Professional bullfighter Robert Urquides helped out with the events and said he still gets nervous every time he enters the bullpen.
“If I don’t, I’m going to quit. It’s all about respecting that bull,” Urquides said. “If you don’t respect it that’s when you’re going to get screwed up and you’re going to get something hurt.”
Reach the reporter at sraymund@asu.edu
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