If anyone had told Dallas Adams back in 2014 of the changes he would experience over the next few years he would never have believed them.
But, sparked by the drowning of his dad at Pourerere in a diving tragedy on the Central Hawke's Bay coast a month before Christmas that year, he's graduated rapidly from the life he calls "adversity" to become a prominent leader of young Maori and on Saturday, four days short of his 34th birthday, a finisher in the Great Wall of China Marathon.
But it's hardly all about him, for dragging behind are a number others inspired by the determination, and putting behind themselves their own drags in life, such as alcohol and drugs.
"This kaupapa epitomises transformational change," he told Hawke's Bay Today after taking part in the marathon as part of the Influence Crew, the brainchild of trainer and Auckland-based former Hawke's Bay man Doug Healey.
Personally, it's the latest step in a change which dates back to the tangi for father Ed Adams in November 2014, when he whispered in his ear: "I'll make you proud."