Five places that made me: Endurance runner Heather Hawkins

UNITED STATES

When I was four, my mum and dad decided to have a family adventure. It was 1969. We arrived in San Francisco, bought a Chevrolet (which was promptly nicknamed "Thunderbird"), hitched it to a dot of a caravan and gathered a glove box of road maps. We set off east. Mum skilfully navigated, Dad masterfully stayed on the correct side of the road and my brothers and I busied ourselves, winding down our windows to feel the rush of wind in our faces. We took a meandering route through national parks, crossed countless state borders, and saw incredible locations such as Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde. I'm proud to say we stood patiently as Dad set the timer on his camera to get "just one more family shot". The sheer scale of the country has stayed with me … and I know it ignited my love of long, adventurous journeys.

BUNGLE BUNGLES, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

When I was 21 I drove across the Tanami desert with my dad to see the newly opened Bungle Bungles Purnululu National Park. The journey was an experience in itself, but to finally arrive and walk amongst the incredible weathered sandstone formations, etched with horizontal stripes and deep chasms, truly took my breath away. It cemented my love of remote outback Australia.

PARIS

Last year my husband Doug and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. We flew to Paris – a perfect and wonderfully romantic place to mark the occasion. We walked everywhere, ate the most fabulous food and loved being among buildings so ornate and so remarkably old compared to Australia. Our anniversary was unforgettable and I know we'll be back there in another 25 years.

GEOGRAPHIC NORTH POLE

It was on a whim that I signed up to do the North Pole Marathon. (Yes, you read that correctly.) This race is held every April, on a drifting ice floe, where laps are run around a Russian research base in temperatures that defy the imagination and freeze your breath on your balaclava. This experience was life changing for me. There I was, a 50-year-old Aussie mum and cancer survivor who'd only been running marathons for a couple of years, and I was first woman across the frozen finish line. That day I found resilience and courage that I never knew I had.

NEPAL