To say that Dale Jacobs has an adventurous spirit is a bit of an understatement. The 70-year old, well-traveled Lakeland lawyer and real estate developer, who has been riding motorcycles since 2000, has a slew of experienced exploits including co-piloting an airplane from a smoke-filled cockpit, and buddy-breathing 100 feet below the surface when running out of air while scuba diving. Yet it wasn’t until 2017 that Jacobs added lions, climbers and bulls to his growing list of ventures.
For several years Jacobs had read articles and watched videos about the annual Running of the Bulls event that takes place in Pamplona, Spain. The run is part of a nine-day festival that honors Saint Fermin. Each day, beginning July 6, participants run in front of a group of six bulls that are released along fenced-in streets leading to a bull ring. This past year, Jacobs and his friend, Stuart McMartin, were among the approximate 2,000 runners who ran July 12.
“To be honest, I had no desire or intention of ever running with the bulls. Dale talked me into it!” said 49-year old McMartin, who divides his time between Edinburgh in Scotland and Lakeland, and who co-owns Lakeland’s Brewlands Bar & Billiards.
The pair of pals planned to watch the run for a few days before lacing up and giving it a go. After observing others run, and after walking the course the day before, Jacobs and McMartin devised a strategy, dressed in their solid white garb with red sashes, and assumed their position atop the street’s steep hill at 7 a.m.
The starting position was part of their careful plan. Thinking that the bulls would be tired by the time they reached the top of the hill, the pair planned to run at the opposite side of the lane to the bulls and “keep on their flank running like heroes into the bullring.” McMartin expounded on the vision, speaking of how they imagined “people would cheer and shower us with flowers” once reaching the ring.
“What actually happened was blind panic and terror!” McMartin said.
At 8 a.m. a rocket blast sounded when the first bull left the gate, and then another blast signaled the last bull’s release. Having waited an hour before hearing the first blast, Jacobs and McMartin, who had been jogging in place to warm up, were already anxious. They began “running for their lives” in front of droves of other runners and a frightening pack of bulls that were not sticking to the men’s plan, but that instead, straddled both lanes of the street, and showed no sign at all of tiring at the top of the hill.
“You can hear the clatter of their hooves and the people screaming in Spanish. Thousands of people line the route and watch from balconies and they are all cheering you on — but secretly hoping one of you gets gored,” McMartin said.
Fortunately, neither man was gored and there were no fatalities during the runs this past year. However, Jacobs was one of the estimated 50 to 100 runners who are injured each year.
“About halfway down the cobblestone street to the stadium, I was slammed against the stone wall and knocked over by several runners. As I lay on the ground, I could look up and see the bulls passing by me only inches away. They are huge beasts and very fast. The whole thing was over in a matter of a few minutes,” Jacobs recounted of the half-mile event that left him with a skinned elbow and knee, and a badly bruised hip.
Jacobs said McMartin made a smarter decision by dodging danger during the run. After a couple hundred yards, McMartin realized there was little hope of outrunning the bulls, and he began looking for an escape route. An 8-foot fence runs through the town square to keep the bulls on course.
“I dived through the slats in the fence 'superman style' to escape the bulls. They stampeded past me and my chance for glory was over,” McMartin said.
The friends found each other after the run when they met for breakfast, celebrated and reflected on their experience over a bottle of traditional red wine. Though each man’s experience was different, they both agree that it was a one and done adventure.
“I have no intention of ever running with the bulls ever again! It was exhilarating but frankly downright dangerous! I thought it might be slightly Disney-esque and sanitized. But it was not,” McMartin said.
“Dale and Stuart are the same mix of crazy and smart,” said McMartin’s wife, Julie McMartin. “There has been so much crazy that I think I’ve got used to it,” she said.
Nonetheless, she was relieved to hear he was safe and uninjured.
“I don’t think either of them expected such a raw experience,” she said.
For Jacobs, however, post-Pamplona 2017 still held enough days for even more adventure. Having heard about a South African friend’s family’s attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (only one of them made it all the way to the top) Jacobs decided that would be another good challenge. Therefore, just months after averting bull horns, he was off to Tanzania to hike Africa’s tallest mountain.
Jacobs reached out to his personal trainer of six years, Will Shillito, with an invitation to join him for the hike of the dormant volcano with a peak altitude of more than 19,000 feet.
“I don’t know why I hesitated, but I did,” said Shillito, who has been rock climbing for 10 years and strength coaching at Lakeland’s TBC 24-Hour Fitness for six years. “Surprisingly, there was a little convincing to be done,” he said, explaining that his wife was supportive from the very beginning.
Shillito and Jacobs added stair climbing, heavy sled pushing, leg exercises and rowing to their regular training regimen. During their climb in October, each man had a personal guide and 10 porters to carry supplies, food, tents and other equipment. Shillito and Jacobs carried their own personal gear, snacks and water in daypacks. They wore the highest quality climbing shoes and wore everything else in layers. They had trained physically, and they were also prepared for warm and cold weather, rain, snow and sleet. Jacobs later wished he had done a little more studying, though.
“I did not do enough research to find out I had to climb the Barranco Wall. It was 2,000 feet of a steep climb to get up and over the wall and we did it single file. One of the reasons I chose this adventure is that I am really afraid of heights so, for me, it was either up the wall or fall over the edge,” Jacobs said.
Shillito said the guides and porters were an important part of the climb.
“They really are the reason people make it to the summit. They were always positive and carefully pushing us to keep going.”
Not only did Jacobs and Shillito “keep going” but they made it successfully to the summit.
“The feeling of accomplishment is indescribable. It was so amazing to see Dale on the last few minutes coming up,” 49-year old Shillito said. “He has made amazing progress since we began and would wear out most people 20 years younger.”
Jacobs admitted that there were many times he did not think he would reach the top. He said that he really had to focus his thoughts on overcoming the physical pain.
“I also wasn’t prepared for how hard it was to come back down the mountain — two days through dry, rocky riverbeds. By the time I made it down, I had numerous bumps and bruises, several scrapes from falling and had lost three toenails,” he said, adding that all were small prices to pay to have climbed to the roof of Africa.
After descending Mount Kilimanjaro, Shillito returned to the States and Jacobs was met once again by McMartin. They traveled on to Zimbabwe for fishing on the Zambezi River and walking through the jungle alongside lions that were being rehabilitated back into the wild. After that, they rode Harley motorcycles 650 miles across South Africa from Johannesburg to the Indian Ocean to fish with friends.
“My wife, Dalene, likes to remind me that even though my engine is running just fine, I’m still a 1948 model,” Jacobs laughed.
In 2018, the “1948 model” has plans for an annual snow skiing trip, a week traveling across Portugal on a BMW motorcycle, and a trip with McMartin on the Trans-Siberian Express railroad from Moscow to Beijing.
Of that impending journey, McMartin promises it will be “an adventure where the only bulls I see will be on my plate!”