By Allison SanchezOriginal Source: uproxx.ocmThe finish line of a long race is one of the most joyful places on the planet. Completing the task is an amazing feeling — amplified by the fact that it carries such a weight of history. You’re not just celebrating a one-day accomplishment, you’re basking in how far you’ve come. After months of hard work, the finish line is just the icing on the cake, the ultimate culmination of time spent pushing your limits, overcoming the obstacles, and finding the positivity through any and every challenge.North Carolina natives Justin Garrity and Matt Elliott faced more than their share of obstacles in their respective quests to run half marathons. But when they did, when they crossed their own finish lines, their races were powerful symbols of hope that their lives were going to get better.“It kind of meant everything,” Garrity, 30, tells me of running his first half marathon about a year after heroin addiction landed him in a homeless shelter. “I worked towards a goal of running this half at a fast pace. I’d done it with positive people in my life. And I was reconnecting with my family.”Garrity’s struggles with addiction had caused estrangement from the people he loved most, his family. Then, a year after...click here to continue reading