By John Rhodes

“And thirty years later that one day is coming.  That ‘one day’ is tomorrow morning.”

On July 7th I caught up with Ian Usher of 100Goals100Weeks.com and talked to him about his goal number 49: Running with the Bulls in Pamplona.  Ian Usher is British, living in Australia for the past several years.  He recently put his whole life up for sale and dedicated these two years to accomplishing 100 goals in 100 weeks.  You can read more about Ian Usher on his website.  And here you can watch interviews with Ian Usher on various international news media.

Out of the millions of things to do and see in this world, you’ve chosen 100 goals to complete in 100 weeks. That’s about two years –

Yes, well actually I wish I’d chosen fifty goals in fifty weeks. This will be goal 49, though I don’t consider myself to have achieved it yet because I’m going to run with the bulls tomorrow morning.  I’ve watched from Michael’s balcony this morning, and I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing to see the bulls running because potentially it could make me a lot more nervous if it was a bad run and, you know, there was a lot of chaos down there.  But it went over fairly cleanly, though there was one guy I saw bowled over by a bull right below us.  I looked at BullRunning.com to see all the videos of runs from last year and that was really helpful to get an idea of how it goes.  There was lot of good information about the actual run itself.

Photos by Alexandra Browning

On your website you say that this goal, running with the bulls in Pamplona, really scares you. You also say that you reckon this was one of the very first goals that you ever set. Why do you think such a scary goal was one of your first?

Well, it was one of the first goals I every set because I saw a documentary about Hemingway when I was 12 or 13 years old.  When it got to the part of his life where he wrote The Sun Also Rises it showed a bit of the running of the bulls in Pamplona.  As a kid I just thought it was so incredible. Now, I should have done it when I was in my early twenties, when you think you’re invincible and nothing scares you.  I’m now forty-five I’ve got a lot more common sense and a lot more, sort of self-preservation.  It scares me because unlike skydiving, where you have a fair amount of control over the equipment and timing, here it seems to be completely out of your hands.  You go, and it’s a lottery out there.  You can be as sensible, safe and sober as you want but things can still go horribly wrong.  That’s why it scares me, because really I don’t see that I have a lot of control over what happens.

So why are you going to run?

Well, because I did say, one day I’m going to do it.  And I’m the sort of person that if I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it.  I would go home very disappointed in myself if I came here and watched it and didn’t do it.  As far as I can remember, it’s one of the first goals I ever set. I very clearly remember thinking, “One day, I’m going to do that.”  And thirty years later that one day is coming.  That “one day” is tomorrow morning.  A lot of my goals on there are sort of self-testing, adrenalin-fueled type things.

Of your 48 accomplished goals, which is your most memorable adventure so far?

Well, two actually.  One was in Japan where I was fortunate enough to swim with a mother Humpback whale and her calf.  You drop into the water and turn over and all of the sudden you see it and think, “Oh my God, look at the size of that!”  The most amazing thing was  you could see her eye and you could see who she was looking at.  But if you tried to get any closer, her tail came up, this big, big tail.  I was thinking, “Should I try to touch the baby?” And then this big tail came up and I thought, “Oh that’s more than play.”
The second most memorable goal that I’ve achieved was riding the wall of death, a vertical, cylindrical wall in which you ride a motorbike.  A guy built his own wall of death in a field with pallets.  This guy is amazing.  He’s a plumber and has a Youtube channel.  I went and saw this thing and it really was pretty rough.  After a couple falls and scrapes, and despite being scared, I finally got it and it clicked.  I was so proud when I drove away.  You push past the fear of hurting yourself.  In terms of personal achievements that was one of my proudest moments.

What’s been a memorable moment so far at San Fermin?

I went to the bull fight which they do on horseback on the 6th,  the opening day.  At first I thought, “I don’t like this at all.”  It wasn’t me, the killing of these magnificent creatures.  I understand there’s a cultural significance but I find it really hard to watch animals die for sport.

However by the second half I started taking pictures and thought I’d watch it just like a sporting event.  And I really was surprised and slightly disturbed about how sort of thrilling it was to see the skill of the guys and the bravery of the horses. You know you could really admire what was going on.  It was very interesting to me to see my own reactions change.  I really don’t think you have a right to condemn anything unless you’ve gone and seen and experienced it.  On my website I’ve tried to avoid all bias or controversy.  I try to just write about what I see and experience.  I try not to be too opinionated about stuff, especially in other cultures.

Ian Usher, at Michael Murphy’s (@PamplonaMan) apartment (pictured here with Murphy’s dog, wearing a typical San Fermin pañuelo):

The next morning both Ian and I ran with the bulls at the beginning of Estafeta street.  We’re both alive and relatively uninjured to tell the tale.