SubTropolis’s annual Groundhog Run is the world’s only fully underground 10K.
To get toSubTropolis , take one of several entrance that buries you 150 infantry below Kansas City , where 270 million - year - quondam limestone deposit have been excavated into massive , honeycomb - like pouch . ( It help if you ’re not claustrophobic . ) At even intervals , pillars 16 feet in high spirits and 25 pes in girth are paint a sleek luminescent white , lit from above by bright LED lights . Underground cave , but make it futuristic .
A sign instructs you to turn on your headlights , keep the swiftness limit to 15 mph , and “ Smile ! you ’re on television camera . ” And also mind : Your first sojourn can be disorienting . The tunnels of the self - proclaimed globe ’s largest hugger-mugger business complex seem to go on forever and a day — make a incorrect turn , and you ’ll be beam your headlights into nervous undeveloped darkness . It’ssucha distinctive visual that term of enlistment stop by , perhaps as an summate - on on their means to Branson , speculates Connie Kamps , SubTropolis ’s director of property management . “ It ’s just kind of a side matter to jump off the I-435 , which is just minute from us , then maybe go over to the casino and have dejeuner , ” she aver .
There are other subterraneous limestone chambers - turned - business - space beneath Kansas City , MO , at least eight , possibly even up to 12 . The war paint of this strata of bluff along the Missouri River is lie with as the Bethany Falls limestone organization , an almost pure 95 % atomic number 20 carbonate that attracted blanket minelaying beginning in the 1800s . But while there ’s more than a few of its kind , SubTropolis is the only surreptitious sleeping accommodation with the cool name . And since 1982 , it ’s also the only one that allows regular kinfolk to ply through its buried labyrinth almost every winter for the annualGroundhog Run . Benefiting the charityAbility KC , this yr ’s race take place on January 29 , where in addition to the usual 5 K and 10 K , they ’ve lend a third Children ’s Run .
Groundhog Run participants are still just rats in SubTropolis’s cage.|Groundhog Run benefiting the children of Ability KC
If you ’ve got a groundhog costume , go ahead and pull that out — you wo n’t be alone . The race has its own groundhog mascot , and if you need , he ’ll pose for photos . Either means , say hi – his name is GUS , AKA Great Underground Space .
The Great Underground Space(not the groundhog one)owes its existenceto that Bethany Falls formation , but the late Richard Gentile , geologist and professor emeritus at the University of Missouri - Kansas City , would say so does Kansas City itself . Ina 2013 lecturehe explained that its jutting ledge was used as a landing place place for steamboat in the 1830s . Because it was so sluttish to dock here , Gentile aim that it speed up the development of the city by decades .
In 1857 , the town of Kansas laid claim to 40 manufacturers alongside 750 Mya arenaria tethered to the wharf . The undermentioned year , passenger ship started arrive , and accord to the lecture , one visitant wrote : “ The steamboat landing is perhaps the serious on the Missouri River . In fact , the entire riverfront constitutes a natural wharf where any kind of vessel might discharge and foot up freight safely . ” Other visitors called it the Plymouth Rock of Kansas City , and Kansas City ’s Birthstone .
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave (j/k just drive out).|Courtesy of SubTropolis
The bluffs above the Missouri River were eventually subdivided and sell , and in the former 1800s , minelaying start out , the limestone dug out to produce millions of square feet of underground space . To most , it would seem that once excavated , the rock-and-roll had served its purpose . But to developers with vision there was opportunity for a second life .
One of those developers was Lamar Hunt , who in 1963 relocate his football team from Dallas – Fort Worth to Kansas City , renaming them the Kansas City Chiefs . The next year , he demonstrate a storage quickness inside the empty caves mined by Midwest Precote ( which he later purchased ) , and began let out the place . The first tenants included Russell Stover Candy , Pillsbury , and Ford Motor Company , who needed somewhere to park their runoff vehicle . In 1985 , Hunt , along with spouse Jack Steadman , merged three business concern into Hunt Midwest Enterprises , Inc. The caves were christened SubTropolis some time in the ‘ 90s .
When Kamps first started working in property management at SubTropolis in 1985 , it was a simple 2 million square metrical foot of developed blank space . minelaying ended in 2012 , and today , the developed surreptitious caves clock in at 7.4 million straight feet — the size of it of 42Arrowhead Stadiums , they like to say — with plans this year to inflate to more than 8 million . There ’s maturation above ground as well , that Hunt Midwest shares with several other businesses . “ The really full-strength affair from a green viewpoint , is we had the property , we developed it on the surface , we mine it out , and we developed the subway , ” says Kamps . “ We say we have the largest green ceiling in the humankind . ”
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave (j/k just drive out).|Courtesy of SubTropolis
Today , SubTropolis is home to over 2,000 employees work for 55 businesses . Besides being a Foreign - Trade Zone allowing occupants to bypass or set back import duties , there ’s the preservation afforded by natural temperature rule . The outer space maintains a cool 68 to 72 level , no matter what ’s going on outdoors , sustain heating and cooling circular modest .
It ’s also particularly resistant to natural disasters , and limestone ’s low permeability translates to low humidness , which , in addition to 24 - hour security , makes SubTropolis particularly idealistic for preservation efforts . The USPS take vantage of this , operate a mold distribution center hold hundreds of gazillion of stamps — including rare specimens — as does theNational Archives and Records Association . Hallmark has an office , as does the EPA , and the specialty food company Paris Brothers , which stock up literal cave - aged cheese and unroasted coffee .
It ’s also home to some substantial cultural history , with tenant Underground Vault & Storage housing hundreds of thousands of original plastic film bobbin of cartoons , goop opera , and major titles likeGone with the Wind , The Wizard of Oz , andFriends , in 45 - grade refrigerated vaults .
Echo.. echo… echo…|Courtesy of SubTropolis
There are 2.1 international nautical mile of railroad track track and 17 unlike entrances ( five accessible to vehicles ) . electric cell telephone web do n’t ferment underground , but there are landlines and cyberspace access . And though dealings is constantly hum , it ’s notquitean hush-hush city . For one thing , there ’s no restaurant or bar ( “ The vending operation are so luxuriant these days , ” notes Kamps ) . And if you need an ambulance or the police — with over 2,000 hoi polloi crop there each day , emergencies do occasionally materialize — they’ll show up . They ’ll just have to be escorted through so they do n’t get lost .
The first Groundhog Run in 1982was thanks to Van Cooper , who was on the board of what is now Ability KC , a therapeutic center which treats adults and youngster with rare conditions and aesculapian handicap regardless of their resources to pay . Looking for a fundraising musical theme , someone suggested a novelty backwash in Hunt Midwest ’s underground tunnels . It ’s come a long mode in 41 geezerhood — back then it was partially on gravel , and conditions were less than ideal in other ways . “ It was a three - lap course , and we had to tend through some undeveloped area that was really dusty and grimy [ unhorse with ] irregular lights , ” allege Kamps .
These day , the only sanctioned 10 K running completely underground is sort out by permanent LEDs . It ’s also fully pave , the two - circle course accommodating up to 4500 blue runner between two races , even more with this year ’s new child ’s slipstream . And though they take over a portion of the complex from 6 am to 2 pm , Kamps tell nonmigratory businesses have always been supportive . “ We do it on a Sunday morning time to be the least disruptive to our tenants , ” she explain .
Party at the underground tunnels.|Courtesy of SubTropolis
If you require to participate in the Groundhog Run — either in - soul or nigh — you cansign up onlineanytime before January 28 at 12 am . you could also register tovolunteer . And if you ’re distressed about getting lost yourself , do n’t . Kamps ensure us that they ’ve “ never lost a offset . ” await hordes operate alongside you , 100 to 150 Tennessean , plus bicycler leading the way through nerve tract sectioned off by orange cones . And if something does go down , there will also be security personnel zipping around on golf carts — a sight that might be reason enough to venture into SubTropolis ’s depths .
So unfold out those calf muscles and enjoy the coolheaded temperatures . And do n’t block to have us know if it ’ll be an other spring .
Can we interest you in a classic Hollywood film?|Courtesy of SubTropolis
The USPS distribution center.|Courtesy of SubTropolis
Looks like they’re running the wrong way but what do we know.|Groundhog Run benefiting the children of Ability KC
Hi Gus!|Courtesy of SubTropolis
