Legitimately Life-Changing:

​Skyler's IRONMAN Story

​Skyler Mosenthal's triathlon journey started as a teenager, cheering for his father at the finish line. Sixteen years and countless races later, he crossed his own finish line at IRONMAN Lake Placid — and it changed him.

Don't forget to check out his advice at the very bottom.

Where It All Began

Some athletes find triathlon on their own. Skyler inherited it.

His father was a lifelong competitive runner who took up triathlon later in life after years of marathoning, bike commuting, and an open water swim fundraiser with a colleague. As a kid, his dad had swum competitively too — enough to eventually race at USAT Nationals as an age grouper. Watching that swim-bike-run energy up close, Skyler got curious.

The summer before his senior year of college, he jumped into a sprint triathlon with his father. It did not go well. "From the very start I was sucking down water and slow as molasses," Skyler recalls. He'd heard hydration was important, so he drained his entire water bottle on the bike — and paid for it with a side stitch the second he started running. His plan had been to catch his dad on the run leg. Instead, his father was nearly finished with the whole race by the time Skyler started biking.

Skyler, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!

"Needless to say, I was hooked."

From that summer on, triathlon became a fixture — sprint and Olympic-distance races, a couple of decades of marathon training in between, and eventually, in his mid-thirties, his first 70.3s. By the time he came to RTA, Skyler had been racing triathlon every summer since 2009. He'd run a 2:35 marathon. He was, by any measure, an experienced, disciplined endurance athlete.
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And yet a full IRONMAN gave even him pause.

Why He Brought In a Coach

Skyler had done the research. The more he learned about the 140.6-mile distance, the more he realized exactly how much there was to get right — nutrition, pacing, recovery, race logistics — and exactly how easy it would be to get wrong. He also knew something about himself: he had a tendency to overtrain, and he wasn't fully confident in a plan he'd put together with the help of AI.

Then he found something that came up again and again in his research: athletes preparing for Lake Placid strongly recommended training on the actual course beforehand. A few searches later, RTA's name kept surfacing — recommended not just by other athletes, but by other triathlon teams in the area.

Skyler got on a call with Coach Elizabeth to learn more, and two things stood out to him immediately. First, she wasn't trying to sell him anything. Second, her approach was rooted in data-backed training design, and she seemed to care as much about his process and improvement as she did about his finish time. "I got the clear sense that she meant business, had a wealth of experience preparing athletes specifically for the race I had in my sights, and that she would be all-in to help support me on this journey."

That combination — expertise plus genuine investment — is exactly what convinced him to commit to RTA's May training camp in Lake Placid and to hire on for full IRONMAN coaching.

Coach E and Skyler minutes after he finished

​The Camp That Set the Tone

​Skyler's Google review of RTA's Lake Placid Training Camp tells the story better than we could:

​RTA's Lake Placid Training Camp was outstanding. Several demanding days on the actual swim/bike/run course in beautiful Lake Placid was an immense confidence booster and game-changer for my training program.

Coaches Elizabeth and Chris seamlessly led swim support, bike navigation and support, and set up pace groups and directions for the run in addition to giving fix-a-flat, nutrition, and race-day preparation workshops. I learned a ton. I felt a great sense of community with the other athletes who were preparing for various races thanks to the intentionally inclusive tone set by Elizabeth and Chris all weekend long (be sure to attend the team dinners!). Several of us still ride/train together!

This was my first time training for an Ironman distance race and I cannot recommend this camp highly enough! It removed all the guesswork about gear management to nutrition to strategizing pacing on the course. A major THANK YOU to Coaches Elizabeth and Chris for their expertise and enthusiasm; you brought out the best in us at KYAH camp!"

Race Week: The Mecca of Triathlon

​If camp set the tone, race week in Lake Placid turned the volume all the way up.

"IMLP was next level!" Skyler said. "The energy in the town all weekend was electric; being surrounded by a town taken over by triathletes felt like I had arrived at the Mecca of Triathlon." Between the pancake breakfast, the IRONMAN expo, RTA's own "Domingo the Flamingo" coffee barge, and the team dinner the night before the race, the whole weekend felt like a build-up worth savoring.

He was struck by the professionalism of the event itself — wetsuit strippers, bike catchers, aid station volunteers who made every athlete feel like a pro. But what stayed with him most was his own team. "RTA team support was everything," he said. "Family and friends of teammates were out there cheering for anyone/everyone on RTA, my own family and friends, Coaches Elizabeth and Chris flying around on the golf cart blasting hype-music — I couldn't have asked for a more supportive and enthusiastic crew!"

Coach Elizabeth had told him to treat IMLP like a victory lap after all the training. Race day delivered on that promise. "The seemingly-everywhere cheer squad party-energy was more than I hoped for and made for one of the most positive race experiences of my triathlon career. So grateful!"

Race Day: Where the Work Paid Off — and Where It Got Hard

​Every IRONMAN has a moment of pure triumph and a moment that tests everything you've got. Skyler's race had both.

His weakest discipline going in was the swim — he'd never had formal coaching on his stroke and had come to swimming as an adult. So when he came out of the water two minutes ahead of his projected pace, "feeling on fire," it wasn't just a good split. It was proof of months of work with Elizabeth and Chris rebuilding his stroke from the ground up.

The hard part came later. Around mile 80 of the bike, his knees started aching. He adjusted his seat position, stopped to stretch at mile 100, but the discomfort followed him onto the run — compounding with race fatigue after mile 15. Instead of fixating on his splits slowing down, he shifted his focus to what he could control in that moment. He thought about his family, waiting to see him again at the next point on course, and let that carry him forward.

"I focused my energy on what I could do in that moment instead of focusing on the slower and slower splits with each passing mile," he said. "I also counted my blessings for the opportunity to be out on that course on that particular day."

Skyler feeling good and ready to attack the 2nd loop of the 2.4 mile swim

The Finish Line

​What was going through Skyler's mind as he crossed the finish line at IRONMAN Lake Placid? One word: GRATITUDE.

"I was thinking about all the people who supported me and journeyed with me throughout all the years I've been in this fantastic sport."

Shortly after the race, Skyler put his experience into a letter to Elizabeth and Chris. In it, he called the weekend "sensational" — crediting their guidance, encouragement, coaching, positivity, and the all-day energy they brought to the course. He wrote about being moved to tears by a speech at the team dinner, and about what it meant to see them cheering throughout the race, all the way to the finish line.

"For me, legitimately life changing," he wrote. "Such an honor and privilege to be a part of this and get to know you both throughout it all."

He signed off with a question that told us everything about where his head already was: "What's next? RTA all the way."

Skyler & Coach E embrace at the finish line

A Coach's Note

Coach E & Skyler seconds before he begins his race

​Skyler was an absolute pleasure to coach. He wanted to understand the purpose behind every workout — not just what to do, but why — and then he executed it to the letter. Every session loaded into his training plan, he did. He communicated constantly: when he wasn't feeling good, when he was feeling great, when something felt off. That kind of open, honest communication is what allows a coach to actually do their job well.

Skyler is also an emotional athlete, in the best sense of the word — because he cares deeply about what he's doing and about the goals he's set for himself. When we see an athlete who cares as much as Skyler does, it makes us want to give more, push harder, and do everything we can to help him become the most successful version of himself.

What He'd Tell the Next Athlete

Skyler's advice to anyone considering a 70.3 or full IRONMAN, straight from his own reflections:

1. Learn the nutrition strategy, and practice it constantly. Nutrition isn't something to figure out on race day.

2. Learn to leverage normalized power (NP) as an outdoor riding method. In his words, a game-changer.

3. Find friends to train with. This sport can get lonely fast — and post-training ice cream is strongly encouraged, LOL.

4. Results are temporary. Find purpose in the journey itself. The self-discipline, the self-confidence, the quiet clarity of an early morning workout — that's the real reward.

What's Next

​Skyler spent sixteen years building toward this finish line — from a teenager watching his dad race, to an adult who'd completed marathons and 70.3s on his own, to an IRONMAN finisher who found, in his own words, one of the most meaningful experiences of his life.

If you're standing somewhere on that same timeline — early in your journey, or finally ready for the distance that's felt just out of reach — we'd be honored to help you get there.

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