Carmelo Orduña's tips

The greatest danger comes from runners crossing your path and falling over.
When you can feel that the herd is about 20 or 30 metres away, try to run in the middle of the street and keep going despite the shoves and elbowing. That's the crucial moment and you have to keep your head in among the tension. Don't forget to run in the middle of the street and always look ahead of you to avoid falling over. A few seconds later, you'll notice there's no-one around you anymore and so you can look back. There'll almost definitely be a bull or an ox breathing down your neck.
From then on, it's up to you how far you run and how you go about it.

I do it to maintain the traditional look of the fiesta: white, pleated, sailcloth trousers and a white, long-sleeved shirt. Espadrilles and a San Fermin neckerchief. A red sash, which should be short and flimsy because it might get caught up; it has to be able to come off easily and not make things more dangerous for you. As for how comfortable espadrilles are, believe me, when you're running in front of a bull, you can't feel your feet at all!

Carmelo says, "I've had a lot of different things happen to me over the years, in Pamplona, Tafalla, Tudela... It's important to accept that running with the bulls involves a number of risks and that sooner or later you're going to fall foul of them, because it's inevitable. Personally, I've had a number of frights, such as getting caught up in a couple of pile-ups in the entrance to the bullring in 1994 and 2004. In 1996, a bull pushed me side on with its horns just as I was entering the ring. I've broken a number of bones in the bull runs: I broke my wrist in Tafalla in 1997, an elbow in Pamplona in 2002 and a few toes in 2004. As you can see, running with the bulls has its consequences and there are always incidents. It's important to accept things as they are when you put yourself in the path of a bull."

Carmelo thinks that the following improvements could be made to the bull run: more attention should be paid to the clothes people wear; huge crowds should be avoided by limiting the numbers of runners per day and per section; runners shouldn't be allowed to customise their kit. The runners should be anonymous; the danger which used to exist in the past could be brought back by having fewer oxen and fewer cowherds in the bull run. The cowherds have become too important recently, herding up bulls which have fallen behind or turn around. The runners should do that themselves, not the cowherds.