Albion Park Rail runner Zac O’Neil speaks about dealing with Covid-19
An ultra fit ultra-marathon runner has opened up about how he’s been knocked down by Covid-19 while debunking misconceptions about the virus.
Illawarra Star
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Albion Park Rail ultra-marathon Zac O’Neil runner has been struck down with Covid and wants others to know it’s more than “just a cold”.
O’Neil, who won the Great North Walk 100 Mile (161km) ultra-marathon in Gosford less than two months ago, has been bound to his bedroom since contracting the virus in the final days of 2021.
O’Neil, who is double vaccinated, went with his girlfriend to get a PCR test in Albion Park on December 29, two days before he began displaying symptoms.
On the 31st, the 26-year-old completed a rapid antigen test which came back positive and kept him away from New Year’s Eve celebrations.
It wasn’t until January 3, five days after being tested, that he received his PCR result which, to his surprise, came back negative.
“I was in the car when my girlfriend went for a PCR and decided I may as well get one as well,” he said.
“I was feeling fine, but then a couple of days later I started feeling this body ache and a heavy chest, so I took a rapid test which came back positive and since then I’ve been isolating at home away from my parents.
“I didn’t get my PCR result back until Monday and it was negative, so I mustn’t have had it when I was tested because my girlfriend as well as my brother, his fiance, two of my cousins and my uncle have since tested positive.
O’Neil explained how he’s felt lethargic throughout and his loss of appetite has seen him lose more than four kilograms.
“I’ve had zero energy,” he explained.
“I’ve spent 23 and a half hours a day in bed for five days straight.
“I’ve probably only eaten, at max, 500 calories a day of ice cream and yoghurt which I can’t taste, but it’s the only thing I can get down my throat without too much pain.”
O’Neil would be considered someone least susceptible to the effects of Covid, but being bedridden for the start of 2022, he now has a deep understanding of how the virus can wreak havoc.
“Now I’ve had it I get how serious it could be for older and vulnerable people,’’ he said.
“Some of my mates have been saying how they aren’t worried about it because it’s ‘just a cold’, but I wish they knew how I have been feeling.
“They probably wouldn’t die from it, but it’s tough and I would hate to have someone like my grandparents get it.”
O’Neil has taken another RAT while waiting for the negative result which will give him the all clear to get back outside.
As yet, it’s only returned positive results, but with his symptoms slowly easing he is hopeful of having enough energy to be pounding the pavement within the next few weeks.
The plight of young adults with Covid came into sharper focus on Thursday with NSW Health announcing a fully vaccinated ACT man in his 20, with no known underlying health conditions, had died in St Vincent’s Hospital at Darlinghurst.
As for his parents, they have avoided being infected but have had to present negative PCR tests to go back to work.
His mother received a negative result after a week of waiting while his father is yet to receive his result after being tested in Albion Park on January 2.
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