During the Running of the Bulls, or the encierro, in Pamplona, Spain, six bulls and (usually) six steers run a roughly 850-meter course through the medieval streets of the city's "Old Town" neighborhood.
The bulls are released from their corrals on Calle Santo Domingo (where they are brought the night before), and they immediately begin running uphill. Then, they charge across the Town Hall Square (aka Plaza Consistorial) onto Calle Mercaderes, around "La Curva" or "Dead Man's Corner," and then up Calle Estafeta. At the end of Calle Estafeta, the bulls curve past the Telefónica building, run down the "callejón" corridor toward the Plaza de Toros (bullring), and then pass through the "Tunnel of Death," and finally arrive into the bullring.
If you're running with the bulls this year, plan to line up between the barricades on Plaza Consistorial or on Calle Santo Domingo by 7:00am. Around 7:15am, the streets will be officially closed to the public, and a police barricade will form at the beginning of Calle Mercaderes. At this point, no one else will be permitted to run.
From 7:00am until around 7:45am, runners will mingle, warm up, and pray. Then, the first police barricade will break, and runners will be permitted to find their chosen place along the route. Some runners will go to a chosen doorway, others will line up underneath the balcony where their friends or families have rented balcony places, and others will run all the way into the Plaza de Toros before the bulls are even released (these people are sarcastically called "los valientes" or "the brave ones" because they never actually run with the bulls).
The doors of the bull corrals are opened at 8:00am sharp, and a rocket is fired to announce that the bull run has officially begun. Then, usually a few seconds later, a second rocket is fired to signal that all bulls have officially left their corrals and have started charging up Calle Santo Domingo towards the crowd of runners. The bulls will run the entire bull run course in roughly 2 minutes and 30 seconds, before finally arriving in their new corrals in the Plaza de Toros, or the bull ring. A final rocket is sounded to signal that all the bulls are safely in their corrals, and then the streets are reopened to the public to start another day of fiesta!
Here's a more detailed map of the run.
