Two days before her biggest races of the season, Rachel Cannon was smacked sideways by the flu. Her little brother had it first. Cannon, a Blackfoot senior, was the next victim.

The timing couldn’t have been much worse. She was supposed to wake up Thursday morning and travel with the rest of her team to Boise for the 4A state track and field championships.

The two-mile, one of Cannon’s specialties, was scheduled for Friday. But the flu isn’t an easily defeated opponent. Instead of jumping on a bus with her teammates, Cannon’s body was in a fight to batter back a virus.

She rode to Boise with her parents Thursday afternoon and did only what someone with the flu can do. She slept for nearly two straight days and forced down as much water and Cool Blue Gatorade as she could.

As the defending 3,200-meter state champion, Cannon’s dreams of claiming a second straight title were tilting on the edge of disaster.

“I wasn’t throwing in the towel, but I also knew realistically that there was a good chance she was going to be affected,” said Rachel’s father, David Cannon.

There was no way she wasn’t going to run. Rachel had put too much into her final high school season to not at least attempt stepping on the track. But what if she hit a wall and stumbled to a last-place finish? How embarrassing would that have been, going from a champion one year to a dud the next?

Her parents woke her up a couple hours before race time. Rachel, two days after coming down with the flu, fueled by bagels, peanut butter, jelly and two sleeves of Oreos, walked out onto the track and ... everything was fine.

“We literally hoped and prayed her way to health,” David said.

Rachel ran two miles in 11 minutes and 6.72 seconds, crossing the finish line by a comfortable 10-second winning margin. She followed that performance up the next day and won her third career individual title by taking the 1,600 in 5:11.45.

No virus was going to slow Rachel down.

“A lot of things came together to allow me to race well,” she said.

The key to Rachel’s success and ability to shrug off the flu? The Gatorade and Oreos, a pre-race tradition, helped, but it really goes back to all the work she’s put into running.

Rachel’s family used to run together. They figured it was healthy and a prime example to set for the kids. It was never fun, though. Not for most of the Cannons, at least.

It was for Rachel. There’s just something about the sport that’s had her hooked. From training, to monitoring how her times would improve, to the competitions, Rachel likes everything there is about going out and competing in a sport that’s not about speed or pure talent. Long-distance running rewards those mentally tough enough to grind and endure the punishment.

Rachel digs that.

“I just really like to win races. I like to beat people,” Rachel said, “but I also like to get beat because it’s just a love of the game, you know. It probably sounds dramatic.”

Dramatic? Nah. The truth? Yes.

It’s how Rachel set school records in the 1,600 (5:05.71) and 3,200 (11:06.55) and was fast enough to draw the attention of BYU coaches.

In one of the highlights of her career, Rachel signed to run for the Cougars on May 29. It’s the only school she ever wanted to run for. BYU, however, never had any interest. Her times weren’t fast enough, despite her state title as a junior.

So Rachel continued to push herself and wouldn’t accept she couldn’t cut it with the Cougars. Once she proved herself, BYU couldn’t ignore Blackfoot’s best runner.

But for how long will Rachel’s records last? Already, it seems, Blackfoot’s burgeoning track and field program is fostering other runners who will soon surpass Rachel’s hard-earned marks.

That has to be bittersweet, right? The school records had stood for 15 years before Rachel came along. Hers might not even last a year.

“That’s part of the legacy. It’s good to have people coming up that will break them,” Rachel said. “I think the tendency is to get bothered by it. It’s kind of like a perspective thing. I trained with those people. It’s not bad that they break records.”