They run for several meters at a time with shoots going into the ground every so often. But these shoots break easily. So you end up pulling in the vine, breaking a bunch of the shoots, and leaving taters in the ground. Most of them are fingerlings but occasionally you get a huge one. And in any event, if you don't get all of them, they'll come back next year.

In this photo, you can see the tip of one that was growing under our driveway. I found our irrigation pipe while I was trying to get it.