Meeting Rona

Being young and fit doesn't faze COVID-19. Salomon runner THABANG MADIBA (36) experienced this for himself.

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Thabang reunited joyfully with running at the 24km 4 Peaks Mountain Challenge on 31 October. He had a burning in his chest as the beginning, but felt good once he'd warmed up. I enjoyed every moment. It was a good test of my fitness at altitude, and I'm happy with seventh place.

I think I caught coronavirus from a friend in June. He was sick and I went to chat with him, then I got sick. My wife also had coronavirus, so it's possible I got it from her.

I had to stay at home while I was sick. Staying home was challenging. The stigma was very bad, and I had to keep quiet about it. I had it, my wife had it, and also my mother-in-law and two close friends.

I didn't tell anyone until two weeks or so after I found out I was infected. I kept it secret and stayed in quarantine until I had recovered. Listening to the way people around me talked about those who were infected, I felt the stigma was very bad. I knew they would treat me badly, so I didn't want to talk about it.

Feeling ill

The typical symptoms are a headache, a high temperature, and your lungs feeling blocked up. But with me it was surprising: my temperature was okay. My main symptom was that I couldn't smell or taste anything for more than a week.

The day I realised I was not okay, I felt hungry. I ate a whole pineapple! I couldn't taste what I was eating. It just tasted like something watery.

The worst part of it was feeling like I'm losing my mind. At one stage I was talking to my wife and I kept having to ask her “Do I make sense when I talk?” and she said I did. I literally cried because I felt all mixed up, like I wasn't making any sense.