Close calls for Americans running with the bulls

It started with a bang. Tuesday's manic half-mile daredevil dash through the narrow streets of Pamplona kicked off this year's renowned San Fermin festival in northern Spain.

Pumped-up fighting bulls charged the crowd, and found some easy targets.

For thousands of thrill-seekers, the challenge is not only to stay a step ahead of a half-ton of bull and horn, but to avoid tripping over the people in front.

"I started running and veered off to the right side of the course," 38-year-old Floridian Mike Webster told CBS News, from his hospital bed.

"The bulls were coming out behind me and I noticed another person in front of me, I couldn't get around him, so I tried to get around him and tripped and fell, and one of the bulls happened to see me and gored me in the armpit, in the shoulder."

A photo shows him giving the old thumbs-up as he's loaded into an ambulance in Pamplona.

A few inches to the right, and it might have been a very different story.

Fifteen people have died since records began in the event made famous -- and popular among Americans -- by Ernest Hemingway's novel "The Sun Also Rises."

Last year, Chicago's Bill Hillmann got a horn near the groin. This year, he's back for more.

"I was gored twice actually, so it was hard," he told CBS News. "The horn actually brushed the femeral artery, and if it had severed it, I would've died."

Unlike the runners, all the bulls die -- the runs through narrow Spanish roads lead them to a bullfighting ring, where they eventually fall to a matador's sword in afternoon bullfights.

This year, semi-naked animal rights activists covered themselves in fake blood in protest.

It's Webster's 11th year taking part, and he said he's got no regrets.

"There's a camaraderie among the runners, an honor, to be able to share the streets with these animals that are just beautiful," he said.