Imagine training your whole life to reach the pinnacle of your sport. You wake up the morning of the big event, but you don’t feel right.

Multiply that times seven and you get some idea how frustrating it was for the Cathedral Catholic girls cross country team a year ago.

They had blown out all the competition at the Mt. SAC Invitational and convincingly captured the section Division III title the week before.

But they knew something was wrong even then. A few of the girls already started feeling the effects of a virus (no, not COVID) and their section performance was way below expectations, despite the title.

By state championship time a week later, all seven girls were either starting to feel better but weren’t 100 percent or in the early stages. Give the girls credit, they toughed it out and ran.

The results, however, showed the impact of the illness.