Los Angeles >> Nick Matulich was a heroin addict for much of his life and has been homeless for more than a year but that didn’t stop him Sunday from keeping a promise to himself.

After training on a treadmill for about three months while enrolled in a men’s drug and alcohol recovery program in Arleta, Matulich completed his first marathon and did so in about six hours. Matulich, who is about half-way through the nine-month, in-house recovery program offered by the Sun Valley-based Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission, had been sober for five months before he ran the ASICS Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday.

“I never really finished anything that I started or anything that I set out to do,” Matulich, 29, said by phone shortly after he crossed the finish line Sunday afternoon. “This really shows me that I can do it.”

Matulich ran with 51-year-old Ken Craft, founder and CEO of Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission, who completed his second marathon on Sunday.

“He tore it up,” Craft said after the race. “He would have finished an hour earlier if it wasn’t for me….It was like he was born free. He just ran like no one else’s business.”

For Matulich, the marathon from Dodger Stadium to the Santa Monica pier was thrilling but “excruciating” at times. The adrenaline rush he felt started wearing off after the first eight miles and that’s when the pain in his knees and legs started kicking in. But he kept telling himself he was going to finish the race, no matter what, he said.

Since Matulich was not been allowed to leave the recovery program’s premises to train, he had to run on a treadmill instead of on the streets, which is no easy feat, Craft said. He didn’t even have running shoes — only basketball shoes — so Craft got him a new pair from their thrift store just in time to break them in.

Matulich grew up in Riverside County as the son of drug addicts and became addicted himself as a teenager, he said. He got kicked out of several high schools and to feed his heroin habit, stole money from others, including family members. He was jailed three times for theft, he said. He went from home to home and even spent a few weeks living in an open field in Hemet before he was accepted into the John E. White House of Hope men’s recovery program in Arleta. Now that he’s sober and has a roof over his head, he has a new sense of purpose and arranges showers and clean clothes for the homeless at the Rescue Mission in Sun Valley, he said.

“I’m really clear headed now, really goal-oriented and really focused on what I need to do,” Matulich said last week. “I do want to go back to school, further educate myself and work.”

People who are homeless often deal with feelings of discouragement and defeat, which makes it even more impressive that Matulich wanted to run this marathon, Craft said.

“I’m really proud of him,” he said last week. “It takes a lot of courage to step out and do something like this, especially when you come from a background of failure.”