The annual
Groundhog Day Run is held at the Hunt Midwest Sub-tropolis located in Kansas
City, Missouri. The sub-tropolis is actually a man-made cave thatis
about a mile deep and a mile wide. This cave is the largest man-made
cave in the world. It is also the only race that is run entirely inside
a cave. More specifically, the cave is located northeast of downtown
Kansas City, Missouri just north of the Missouri River. Theentire
race is run inside the cave, which is quite a unique experience. There are
two races, a 5K and a 10K. The race starts just inside the cave entrance.
There is a big parking lot just outside the cave entrance. You have tocross
some railroad tracks to get into the cave. The course itselfconsists
of a circular loop around the cave with little tunnels that endin cul-de-sacs.
You run down each of the little tunnels and thenturn around and come back.
You can see all of the people ahead andbehind you in these tunnels.
There are a total of four of these little“tunnels”. The
entire course is lit, but it still seems pretty dark, especially inthetunnels.
The surface that you run on consists of asphalt. Forthe most part it
is pretty smooth. There are a few places whereyouhave to watch your
step. Everyone wears shorts and t-shirts. Itis cool at the beginning
but when you get to the back of the cave, itis prettywarm. After about
two miles, I felt like I was in a sauna. The5K consists of one loop
around the cave and the 10K consists of two loops. The course is very
well marked. They had people at each of the entrancestothe tunnels directing
traffic. The start and finish line are at the samelocation. There were
a total of 2700 runners for both races. The 5K had about 1800 runners
and the10K, 900. The size of the raceis limited to 2700 runners, and
you have to pre-register. There isno race-day registration. The
cost to run the race this year was $25. I recommend this race for anyone
to try at least once. It is an experienceunlike any other in running.
The race is put on annually the firstSunday in February by the Children’s
Therapeutic Learning Center inKansas City. They also have their own
website. The URL for thewebsite is shown below. Check it out!
www.childrenstlc.org/pages/groundhog.html
-- Kendall Payne