Great Oak cross country runner Lauren Campfield doesn't take life for granted, especially when it comes to sports.

The three-sport athlete for the Wolfpack treasures each moment she plays basketball, each friend she makes on the track, and each breath she takes during a cross country race.

Campfield suffers from exercise-induced asthma, a condition that affects her most during those grueling 3-mile races. Still, Campfield is one of the top returning female runners in the Valley, looking to take the Great Oak girls' squad back to the state-championship meet.

"There are a lot of other worse problems I could have. My asthma is mild compared to most cases, and it's not life-threatening," Campfield said. "I'm still able to play and run and do everything, plus I've been blessed with a lot of talent.

"I think I've been dealt a pretty good hand, so I'm not complaining."

Campfield suffered from asthma as a child. She thought she outgrew it when she only had to use her inhaler was when she got sick, and not on a regular basis.

During this time, the ever-active Campfield played soccer and basketball. Then she joined the tennis team in the fall of her freshman year at Temecula Valley, was a gym rat in the winter, and ran track in the spring.

Under the urging of former Bears' head cross country and track coach Doug McLean —— now an assistant at Great Oak —— Campfield started running cross country for the Wolfpack as a sophomore.

The first real sign that something was wrong came midway through the 2004 season at the Inland Empire Championships in Ontario. After running one of her fastest times of the season, covering the 3-mile course in 18 minutes, 43 seconds to place sixth in the sweepstakes race, Campfield passed out.

At the time, she didn't think it was asthma, but trainers at the finish line told her she went into oxygen debt. The incident did not hamper her season, and about three weeks later, Campfield won the Big Sky League championships race in a personal best 18:14.

Then another attack came at CIF-SS Finals, less than two weeks later.

"I don't get an asthma attack like most people," Campfield said, describing what she goes through. "It's more like I'm not getting enough air. The airways are narrowing, but not so much that I'm coughing or wheezing."

Campfield says the toughest part of an asthma attack is the mental aspect.

"The most difficult thing is not letting it get into my head," said Campfield, who has already felt the effects of her asthma this season, and plans on formulating a plan to combat it —— both mentally and physically.

"I'm going to take my medicine, be on top of that and keep working on finding something to solve the problem," Campfield said. "And mentally, I'm just going to have to completely forget about it during races.

"It's out of my hands anyway."

Campfield has seen doctors to try to find a medicine that will help her ailment, and Wolfpack coach Doug Soles has been working on the helping her win the mental game.

"When she can't breathe it's frustrating, so I try to make sure she doesn't get too frustrated," Soles said. "And we are constantly reassessing her situation.

"She has a positive outlook on everything she does, and with all the kids looking at her, she is setting a good tone."

Campfield is one of five captains on Great Oak's combined boys' and girls' team of 115 athletes, and her goals for this season lie around them.

"I want our team to go to state, that's the main thing," Campfield said. "To go back to CIF and advance to state, that's my main motivation."

Campfield also has high individual expectations, but they aren't quite as tangible as a state meet berth.

"As long as I know that I pushed myself to my limits, that is satisfying enough to me," Campfield said. "It's like in basketball, you can't always make all your shots, but you can always control how much you hustle, and you can always play the hardest defense ever."

So in the coming season, Campfield will line up her defense against a disease that could hit at any moment, knowing that the only thing she can control is how she reacts.

"Whatever happens, happens," Campfield said. "If it doesn't ever go away, I'm still going to do my best and keep trying to fight it."

Becky Freeman can be reached at (951) 676-4315 Ext. 2630 or bfreeman@californian.com.