Running with the Bulls entertains

Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

With one effortless head flick, the bull sent contestant No. 19 airborne. Like a sphinx, he landed on his feet and miraculously dove through the third rung of the foot-wide rodeo arena fence like Superman, escaping another thunderous horned attack. It was one of the most athletic, life-preserving moves captured on camera.
And that was just one of the scenarios that unfolded during the two-day Running With the Bulls event at the Strathmore Stampede and Heritage Days.
The 14th installment of the Running With the Bulls kicked off just before the chuckwagon races Aug. 5 at the Strathmore and District Agricultural Society rodeo grounds.
Following the rodeo on Aug. 5-6, an exaggerated intermission took place, while the rodeo crew set up the track for the contestants. Rodeo fences created a circle within the arena, leaving the bull runners a 20-foot wide escape track.
Seventy-one entrants ran on the first day and 50 more signed up for the second running. Each of them risked it all for $1,000 each day and a $250 gift card to a local restaurant.
Up first was the large group all wearing red shirts, for the most part. There were a few colourful costumes sprinkled in there: a man dressed as a chicken, a man with a cardboard box around his chest and a few “lucha libres.”
They gathered beneath a raised scissor lift for the reading of the rules and the Running With the Bulls prayer by legendary rodeo announcer Bob Tallman.
And then all hell broke loose.
The first of three waves of bulls — from youngest and less cranky, to oldest and highly agitated — were let loose on the contestants, as many of them scattered like birds, hopping onto the rodeo fences and avoided a Mufassa-esque trampling.
When one of the bulls lost its initial sense of steam, the brave ones and wannabe rodeo clowns took over.
They slapped the bull, tried to get their hands on the bull, risking life and limb, all while trying to impress the watchful eyes of the judges, who happened to be the Strathmore rodeo queen and a pair of Calgary Stampeders.
It wasn’t just the brave runners who were having issues with the bulls. It often took the cowboys a few attempts to lasso each bull and escort them through the gate, especially when the bulls turned their horns to the horses.
There were two runners who entertained the crowd more than the rest and each walked away with the $1,000 purse. One local young man walked away with the prize after the first running. Shane Krywcun of Langdon is a fourth-generation cowboy and grew up around bulls.
“Me and my brother Dallas grew up on farms steer wrestling at home, so I grew up around bulls so I kind of know how they act,” said Krywcun. “It definitely gets nerve-racking when you have a bull’s head right on your hip while you’re trying to run around out there.”
Krywcun had been taking mental notes of the competition during the last few seasons. He claimed he had a similar approach during his previous run-ins with the bulls, but never won. So he wasn’t expecting to come out on top after this year’s installment.
“Bulls have a slower reaction time than humans and they close their eyes when they go to hit you, so the trick is to turn away from them as fast as you can,” said Krywcun, who got sent for a ride into the fence during the initial wave of bulls.
Krywcun’s craftiness caught the eye of Calgary Stampeders left guard Justin Renfrow.
“I was watching (Krywcun) run around and he was making a couple brave moves out there,” said the 330-pound Renfrow. “I have never seen this event before so I had no idea what to expect, but there were people getting laid out in the back corner.”
When asked if the rookie lineman — who bench presses 470 pounds — could ever see himself participating in the run, he responded “never. I can get around linemen all day, but not a bull.”
A smaller crowd hopped over the rails for the second day of bull running.
The group donned pink shirts, but less costumes. There were noticeably more women in the event and there was one 69-year-old male contestant.
The bulls were just as chaotic as the first run, dumping runners into the boards, ramming them into the group and running through a couple of unlucky racers.
Calgary’s Kyle Adamowicz got tossed around like a sock in the dryer, but walked away with $1,000 in his pocket.
“Not sure which round I got it worse, they kind of all blended together,” said Adamowicz, 26.
He looked a little rough around the edges. He had blood running down his chin, his arm was bruised and you could see the bruise growing on his neck in real time.
“I feel like one million bucks right now,” said Adamowicz, who has competed in the race since 2009 but never won.
Aside from the winners of the cash and gift cards, everyone who survived the race were the real winners. Despite all the mayhem, gouging-attempts and charging, there was nobody seriously injured. Everyone walked away under their own power.
Maybe with a little more of a limp than usual, though.