BILOXI — Rodeo cowboys got to watch as about 150 runners, from a high-school teacher to a coliseum official, dashed to stay ahead of 10 bulls for quarter-mile around the Mississippi Coast Coliseum.
Both groups enjoyed some trash talking before the race, which took about 3 minutes Saturday night.
“They were giving us 20-to-1 odds the bulls would get us,” runner Crystal Peterson told The Sun Herald after her successful run. “We look like cheerleaders and we should never have been running with the bulls — that’s what they were saying. Turns out they owe ‘the adrenaline vixens’ some money.”
Nobody was hurt, said Harrison County Fire Marshal Pat Sullivan. He said about 12 medical people were spaced throughout the course in case of emergency but no one reported an injury.
He said he joined the run so he’d be right there if anyone was injured.
“I can add it to a long list of things I’ve done,” he said.
High-school English teacher Jeni Marley of Mobile, gave a similar reason: “For the excitement and a great story to tell. I want to be like (Ernest) Hemingway.”
She and her husband both ran.
“I had one come this close,” she told The Mississippi Press, holding her hands about six inches apart. “I had to jump on the fence.”
The coliseum’s assistant director, Matt McDonnell, also participated.
“It was a rush, I’ll tell you what,” he said. “We practiced several times, but it’s a lot different when you have all those people out there.
“The people brought the energy and the bulls felt it. They wanted to get on through them and to where the food is.”
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