Former Head of the NYC Marathon Is Running for a New Cause

The former face of the New York City Marathon, who lost his job in 2020 amid complaints about diversity within the organization, has a new mission—helping people with mental health struggles. Michael Capiraso became the head of New York Road Runners in 2015 but departed five years later after a then-anonymous smear campaign, largely from an Instagram account called Rebuild NYRR, accused Capiraso and top leaders of racism, sexism, financial mismanagement and creating a toxic atmosphere at the running organization. The New York Times reports that an investigation was unable to find any evidence of wrongdoing outlined in the Rebuild NYRR Instagram account, which was found to be created by a former employee who been furloughed during the coronavirus pandemic. Despite being cleared, Capriaso told the Daily Beast he suffered from depression and PTSD as a result of how he was treated. Now, he has combined his passion for running with helping those facing similar mental health struggles through his work as a board member and adviser for the nonprofit Still I Run. “I am making it my mission to help others battling severe PTSD and depression. And just as I did through running, I want to help people,” he told the Daily Beast. “In addition to the many mental heath treatments that I used to help me, the ongoing mental health benefits of running are, and always have been there for me, and it is personally critical to me and many others. Through it all I trained for ran a marathon for the 32nd consecutive year this past fall.”