Temperatures in the high 90s and steep, challenging hills describe what our cross country runners faced last month at the Mt. SAC Invitational.

Please forgive my attempt to paraphrase Jack London (when he described how cold Alaska was), but this particular morning at Mt. SAC the day broke hot, exceedingly hot and dry ….

Getting out of my car, the heat hit me like someone had socked me in the belly.

It was a kind of blistering heat, where I felt the sun blazing down on top of my head, sapping my strength.

I was only walking around, but the runners had to race under that bright, hot sun and go up those hills, too.

At about 11 a.m. the women lined up for their race.

Mt. SAC’s infamous cross country course starts in a big field. Then the runners go up and around some meandering hills called the Switchbacks.

They cross some flat terrain and go up Poopout Hill next. It’s about 150 yards long and seems to go straight up.

After that, the competitors run along a ridge and attack the long Reservoir Hill, before finishing in front of the track.

I raced on this course too, back when I ran cross country in high school.

Somewhere in the hazy recesses of my memory, I remember going up and down those challenging switchbacks.

Heather Rosas, who ran a strong race in placing fourth, acknowledged how challenging Mt. SAC’s hills are.

“The hills were big and long,” she said. “Some of them were so steep it felt like you were going to fall backward.”

A bigger problem was the heat and dust from the trails.

“It hurts the lungs,” she said.

Becky Cherry looked exhausted afterward and said she became dehydrated.

“It was extremely hot and hard to breathe,” she said. “My chest started to burn and I was really happy when it was over. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this tired.”

The men ran at high noon and by then it seemed even hotter.

Sal Bautista told me he had a strategy for the hills, which must have worked because he finished ninth.

“I started slow and moved up on the hills,” he said. “They didn’t really bother me.”

But he said the heat was another thing.

“It was really hot and I wanted to die at the end, because I couldn’t breathe.”

Maybe he had a reason for sprinting hard at the finish, besides wanting to place well.

“I wanted to sit down and rest,” he said.