 Unique 5K and 10K races are held each year at Ground Hog Day in an underground industrial park in Kansas City. |
 Getting there is an adventure, because race parking is on the other side of a set of busy railroad tracks! |
 Race morning was 12 degrees and breezy! You can bet no one was pleased to stand and wait for a train to pass! |
 Big rush to get inside Subtropolis. |
 I was bundled up too. |
 Just past the doorway, it became "perfect race day" temperature. |
 I didn't know exactly what I'd see inside. This is a typical view. I think the columns are 7-meters across. This is pretty much all you see for mile after mile underground! |
 Although underground, things were familiar. |
 The finish line. |
 And a runner's fondest buddies and pals, the portalets. |
 I signed up for boths races, 5K and 10K. So I had three chips, two race numbers. |
 Ready to go! Actually, I ran without a shirt. Approximately 2,000 ran the races, most did the 5K. |
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This is the course! More turns than a theme park 5K! Each lap is 3.1 miles. I'm not sure how air was reaching the deeper portions of the course, but some areas felt colder than others. The out and back past the two mile was coolest of all, nearly reaching an open portal. The roadway crossed six sets of underground railroad tracks. Lighting was dim, and there were other tripping hazards to look for quickly in the crowded field. The air was very dry, I had a dry hacking cough after the 5K. However, I got used to the dry air quickly. Running the 10K (twenty minutes after I finished the 5K) didn't bother me. |
 The surface above Subtropolis, as seen in Google Earth. A lot of trucking companies and industrial buildings. |
 Blue lines are my best estimate on how the Ground Hog course ran underground, in Subtropolis. |