The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: July sixth, running a race that starts with a bang and ends on a bull's horn.

At eight this morning in the town of Pamplona, in the hills of northern Spain, a firecracker announced the start of the Encierro. Sixteen fighting bulls were released from the corrals on Santo Domingo Street and charged 900 yards through the cobblestoned streets to the bullring in Pamplona's center. Before them dashed hundreds of foolhardy souls, many dressed in sacrificial white with red sashes around their waists. They tested their nerve, nimbleness and speed by keeping just ahead of several tons of brute muscle and stiletto horn.

For 300 years before Hemingway and Michener popularized Pamplona's curious ritual, the bulls have run each morning during the week-long festival of San Fermin. The animals generally take about two minutes to complete the course. Finishing times of some runners are a good bit longer. Collisions and injuries are common, but seldom fatal. Serious mayhem is rare as long as the herd runs in a tight mass. It's when bulls become separated that they can grow desperate and deadly. Even for spectators who stand safely behind barricades or watch from windows as the herd thunders past, the Encierro is an adrenalin rush amid a week of non-stop locura, or crazy partying.

San Fermin continues to midnight on the 14th, and the bulls will run each morning. Traditionally, the Encierro is for men only, but these days a handful of women also take part. There's no cost to run with Pamplona's bulls. You must only be able-bodied, sober enough to run, and looking for an experience you'll never forget.

FMI For a list of Encierro accommodations, phone the Pamplona Tourist office 011-34-48-220741 or fax 011-34-48-212059. The phone number of the Spanish Tourist Office in New York is 212-265-8822 or www.okspain.org or www.pamplona.net

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