Mike Reilly is the voice of Ironman

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photo Mike Reilly has spent decades as the voice of Ironman. Today, he will announce the names of more than 2,500 as they cross the finish line.

By the end of today's inaugural Ironman Chattanooga, one voice will be ringing in the ears of the more than 2,500 athletes attempting to complete the 144.6-mile course.

That voice will belong to Mike Reilly, also known as the "voice of the Ironman."

Reilly, a San Diego native and co-founder of the Active.com event registration network, has been involved with triathlons since the 1970s. He went from competing as an athlete to announcing the races at the finish line, and from there a second career was born as a motivator for every athlete struggling to achieve their goals.

"I go through the bios -- I've got 2,700 names there [for Chattanooga] -- and I read their names four or five times," he said. "Then I go through what they wrote and what their story is because everyone has such amazing stories."

When he's not motivating competitors, Reilly is urging the spectators to cheer on the athletes as they come through the transition stations from swim to bike, bike to run and through the finish line.

"During the day I'm always challenging the [spectators] to be sure they go home with sore hands and sore voices, because that's a whole lot easier than what those athletes are doing," he said.

Today's race will be Reilly's 138th Ironman as the announcer, and he said he's excited to call the names of so many new Ironman triathletes in the first year of the event in Chattanooga.

"There's going to be a lot of first-timers at this race. I bet there will be more than 1,000," he said. "At many races, I'll look at the names and see folks whose names I've called sometimes nine times. But in Chattanooga, this will be the first time I get to call out the names of so many people."

After decades of announcing the names of athletes as they finish an Ironman event, Reilly remains excited about his work helping document an important moment in a person's life by calling out his or her name at the finish.

"I love the sport -- it's my passion," he said. "And it's a pretty high honor to be able to yell out somebody's name and congratulate them and put an exclamation point on probably the biggest accomplishment of their lives.

"I have people come up to me and say, 'Mike, this changed my life, and what you said to me at the finish line will be etched in my memory for the rest of my life.' ... My pleasure comes from being able to tell the world that they're an Ironman."

Contact Jim Tanner at jtanner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6478. Follow him at twitter.com/JFTanner.

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