Ragnar 200 Mile Relay Race from Traverse City to Muskegon

The Power of Saying Yes!

I used to say no—a lot. No to new experiences, no to challenges, no to anything that pushed me outside my comfort zone. But with The Year of the Opposite challenge, I started saying yes.

It’s been about two years since I made that shift, and it has been a game-changer.

Take Ragnar Michigan 2024, for example. When Kenny asked me to join his team, "Salty Nips," I had no clue how far I’d be running, what the conditions were, or even when the race started.

If I had known that the Ragnar is a 200 mile relay race from Traverse City to Muskegon where 12 guys pile into 2 stinky vans, share beds, and get little sleep over the course of 2 days - I surely would have said NO!

But I said yes. Because of the Year Of The Opposite, I embraced the challenge—and the experience was more than I could have imagined.

Over two days, 13 guys (12 runners 1 driver) —mostly Kenny’s CrossFit buddies—piled into two vans, driving from Traverse City to Muskegon.

Our time? 33 hours, 3 minutes, and 3 seconds. Not the fastest (46th out of 95 teams), but it wasn’t about winning. It was about saying yes, embracing the unknown, and pushing myself.

My Race Legs Breakdown:

• Leg 1: Sunrise Grind – 6.1 miles at sunrise with a 366 ft elevation gain. My pace? 9:37 per mile. It was the perfect start to the race, with stunning sunrise views over Traverse City Bay.

• Leg 13: Sunset Push – 7.5 miles during the golden hour. I pushed through exhaustion, and my last mile clocked in at 7:16 per mile. Overall, this leg came in at 9:32 per mile. I even passed two runners in the final stretch for a couple of kills—felt amazing.

• Leg 25: Dawn Dash – 3.5 miles early in the morning, with a downhill sprint that gave me my fastest pace of the race at 8:46 per mile. The last leg, but my strongest finish.

Despite getting just a few hours of sleep between runs—crammed into hotel rooms or the van—it was worth every second. Running at sunrise and sunset, meeting new people, learning new skills, and pushing my body in ways I never thought I could. It wasn’t just about running. It was about finding a renewed sense of self-confidence and proving that I can take on challenges I’d never have considered before.

This wasn’t just about saying yes to a race. It was about saying yes to life, growth, and the unexpected. I wasn’t just running miles; I was running toward something bigger.

There’s a lot of talk about limiting beliefs these days. Simply put, limiting beliefs are thoughts or assumptions that hold you back from reaching your full potential. Before my Year of the Opposite, I had plenty of limiting beliefs about myself. I used to think that if something involved sports or physical activity, it wasn’t for me. If something took up too much time and wasn’t directly related to work, it wasn’t for me.

But those were just stories I was telling myself. Now, by saying “yes” to everything, I’m actively working to remove those limiting beliefs, and in doing so, I’ve opened myself up to opportunities I never would have imagined.

Never before would I have imagined that I could go on a 5-day self-contained hike on Isle Royale. Never before would I have thought that I could run almost 20 miles personally as part of a relay team covering nearly 200 miles. But now I know that if I’m ever forced into a situation like that, I can do it. It opens the aperture a little bit on what I think is possible for myself. It gives me a bit more self-confidence. It gives me a bit more resiliency.