Garden of Life Palm Beaches Marathon giving Florida man hope after tragedy

By Shayne Wright

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    PALM BEACH, Florida (WPBF) — These days, Mike Vitanza, 67, has a lot on his plate.

“I’ll spend two hours on the treadmill at 13 minutes, trying to get it down to 12,” said Vitanza.

After working 33 years on Wall Street, he says he still has a lot to do. Vitanza is training for the Garden of Life Palm Beaches Marathon to raise awareness about drug addiction but it’s not entirely about why he’s running, it’s about who he’s running for.

“You’re going to back into rehab, you can come stay with us and we’ll beat this. That’s what I said,” says Vitanza as he recalls what he told his son last October. Spencer Vitanza was getting treated for COVID-19 at the time.

“He was scared. I stroked his hair. I stayed there as long as they’d let me. His system was too weak to overcome it because of the drug abuse.”

Spencer Vitanza died at just 34 years old that day.

Vitanza said, “He wasn’t a bad kid. he was a good kid. He just couldn’t get out.”

Now, he trains almost every day, getting ready to run the race of his life while also caring for his wife, Millie, who’s now fighting her own battle.

“She has a rare neurological disorder, and she’s lost her legs, she’s losing control of her body,” said Vitanza.

So, retirement looks a little different than he thought it would. He says he wants the world to know there’s a way out for those who need help.

“You can always find the time to find excuses not to do it. that’s easy, but you want to know something, that guilt that comes with it not too easy,” Vitanza said.

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