SINGAPORE - We are now 12 months into the global pandemic and I have not been able to run ultra-marathons, which were all cancelled last year. But the dawn of a new year - and the prospect of some travel emerging later in the year with the global vaccine roll-out - is a good time to remember that ultra-marathons have taken me to the most isolated and beautiful places on earth. These include the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Sahara in Namibia and hundreds of kilometres of wilderness in Mongolia, Nepal, Laos, China, Vietnam and Antarctica. Running ultra-marathons on little food and water non-stop for seven days over rough terrain in hot and cold temperatures, up mountains and through streams, is a wonderful challenge for me.