I have done this many times with good success.
The first thing you have to do is free up the vine.
Unbury it and cut all the roots 4 to 5 feet back on both sides of the pumpkin.
Then over the next 7 to 10 days start rotating the pumpkin and the vine just a little each day.
You can put in some wood stakes and tie the vine to them with cloth straps to support the vine since it will be off the ground now.
Make sure no secondary vines grow over the main keeping the main vine from rising as the pumpkin grows.

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Forgot to sat to put something behind the pumpkin to keep it were you put it after you start to rotate it and also use wood stakes (bent/put in the ground at an angle) on the leaf stems to keep the vine were you rotated it to.

Yeah you definitely want to uncover that vine if you are growing an atlantic giant or other large pumpkin because if the vine can't move the pumpkin can literally break off the vine while growing.

The ads are just part of gardenweb's ads it is nothing you did. For me "Free" in your post is an ad not success, just ignore them.

I really don't want to uncover and cut the roots off on both sides of this pumpkin (that'd be just about the entirety of what I had covered). I think the roots along the stem are really helping with hydration as compared with my vine last year which I didn't cover much, and was badly wilting on any hot day, even after multiple waterings.

This is an AG, and I think I am going to try to let it grow as many pumpkins as it wants, rather than trying for a single giant one.

I do see that I have some more female flowers further up the main stem. Will it encourage quicker growth elsewhere if I just cull this pumpkin now?

Is it a good idea to train the vine up over something near nascent female flowers, so that you don't have to cut a lot of tendrils and roots when it's bigger to lift the stem up off the ground?

thanks for the advice.

How far out is the pumpkin? Competitive growers look for a pumpkin 10 ft out on the main vine. But since you aren't going for size i'd just let them all grow. Maximas (like the AG) in my experience are very prone to squash vine borers, and as you've noted burying the vine is almost essential. But if you have the vine anchored where the pumpkin grows you risk losing the fruit. If you are growing AGs there is another forum specifically for them that can supplement the knowlegde of people here, bigpumpkins.com

And for future females what you do is take 5 or 6 feet (with the female in the middle of that) of vine and instead of letting it grow straight, give it some slack like a semi circle so that as the pumpkin grows the vine can move. Some people actually terminate the vine past the fruit but since you aren't going for size I see no reason to do that.

This pumpkin is about 8' from the base. I think the vine is 20' now. I was planning to cull this guy once I was sure the next female was pollinated. But, had 2 90+ degree days and now the next one looks dead (I read they don't pollinate well in high heat).

I will start being more proactive with pollination to see if I can get a few more going. Maybe even freeze some pollen :).

thanks,
-JJ