The Great American Bullrunner

As I write up a full account of Pamplona for a magazine, I came across this photo of me and Joe Distler (whose name the copy editor hilariously changed in my book Into The Arena to Jose Distler). This photo is taken in his apartment, a museum to the history of the bulls in Pamplona, a couple of hours after we had both run with the bulls of Victoriano del Río. It was my second year running, the first being 2009 for the book. He has been running every year since 1967 and is currently explaining how he taught the great matador, José María Manzanares el padre – father of the current figura del toreo who pardoned a bull in Seville this year – how to run the bulls in Pamplona. “It was this big,” he is saying. To paraphrase Gary Larson: “Where the worlds of tauromachy and angling collide.”

"It was this big." Joe Distler to Alexander Fiske-Harrison (Photo: AFH personal collection)

Alexander Fiske-Harrison