“Oh man. We have to do that!”
We’ve said this a few times over the course of the planning for the trip.
Some are, admittedly, weirder than others – I’m looking at you toe-drinks, but this one is up there with some of the cooler and more unique things we are doing.
We planned from day one to be in Kansas in February 2019 to run the Strataca 5K in the only underground salt mine that you can visit in the US.
Here’s how it went:
We arrived and everything was really well organized. We grabbed our packets which included a t-shirt (which glowed in the dark!), a medal (for the first 350 registrants), the race bib with safety pins and information.
Entrants were able to leave their bags in the lobby. You were asked to bring a helmet and light – they provide helmets if needed but they aren’t very comfortable. We had our own helmets ($2 and $3 respectively from the thrift store) and head lamps.
We also were excited to see the special guests we’d been warned about before the race… THE GIRL SCOUTS WITH COOKIES!! Shout out to Troop #40569! We bought all the cookies we might need to refuel after the race – 2 boxes of Thin Mints, 1 box of Samoas, 1 box of S’mores and 1 box of Tagalongs.
You head into a separate room when your heat is called and you get a safety talk. You’re counted several times to ensure everyone’s safety in the mine.
You head up before you head down in the massive elevator that’s going to deliver you 650 feet below the ground. It gets completely dark. We have a video of our race later on in the post and you’ll see just how dark it can get, both in the elevator and underground in the mine.
The entrance area is well lit and everyone lined up for another safety briefing. This included several reminders to keep our helmets on, lights on and to FOLLOW THE BLUE LINE.
There’s a blue safety line that runs throughout the mine for runners to follow. You’re instructed not to deviate from it by more than 5 feet on either side.
There was also information about trash. Trash piles can be found throughout the mine, but they’re of historic significance and therefore shouldn’t be disturbed or added to. Sadly, I didn’t see any but hopefully we can visit again in the future and take the full tour including historic trash.
There are sections throughout the mine that have some lighting. We stopped and took pictures along the way and I’m so glad we did. As with the Insane Inflatable 5K, I wore the Go-Pro. This time it seemed even more jumpy and so you can’t see very much in the mine with the addition of the dark and dim lighting.
Towards the end of the run, just before the 4K marker, you come to a large salt formation – believed to be the largest in the mine. A volunteer waits there and tells you about it if you need a breather – which I did. You can hear the information in our video below.
We also caught up with our ‘friends’ – Blue and her running buddy. I started calling her “blue” since she was wearing really cool blue running lights. They started with us and we chased them the whole way. It turns out their names were Amy and Brandy and we finished the remainder of the race with them. It was really fun getting to know another new set of people on our trip and to share the exciting finish with them. They have a goal of a 5k a month this year – go girls go!!
We finally made it to the end – just when you think you can see it they send you off for one more turn – but then it was there in all its well-lit glory! The finish line!
There were drinks, light snacks and chairs at the end of the run. There were also the promised piles of salt that you could choose from for a small souvenir.
At the end is also a map of the race and it shows how large the mine truly is. Our race was in the blue and purple sections…
On the way out you head through an area of the museum that’s part of the larger tour.
Overall we had an amazing time. The race was really fun, well organized and unique. The cost was $127.21 total for the 2 of us (~$64 pp) and it’s a fundraiser for the mine. That’s pretty steep for a 5k, but when you consider that it’s an entire experience that many people will never do, it made it worth it.
As promised, here’s the video of our experience. It’s a little shaky but it still gives a good idea of just how much darkness there is and what the whole experience was like.
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