Marathon Man

Racer Lee Warn gets candid with Adrian Hatwell about his recovery journey, finding joy in the absurd, and pushing physical limits fuelled by a vegan lifestyle. 

As the largest marathon in the world, the London marathon always attracts a thronging crowd. This year was no different, with top elite athletes, a sprinkling of celebrities, and tens of thousands of enthusiastic runners hitting the pavement for more than 42 kilometres around the River Thames. As is typical for the event, the sunny April day saw the track awash with assorted bright sportswear colours. But those paying close attention might also have noticed some decidedly unusual racing attire.

A giant squirrel, fur blowing in the wind as it unleashes powerful pulls upon a three-wheel racing wheelchair, head down bushy tail up, plunged towards the finishing line. The squirrel knocked out the London Marathon in three hours and 29 minutes, to an ebullient reception from the crowd and fellow athletes.  

Beneath the fur was Lee Warn, a vegan Kiwi who has been bringing costumed whimsy to endurance events for decades. Now in his 50s, Lee has no intentions of slowing down. In fact, he’s set himself his most ambitious goal to date; to complete the world’s six greatest marathons and collect one of the sport’s most covetable prizes, the Six Star Medal. And he plans to do it all while wearing the most outlandish costumes he can manage.    

The Starting Line

Originally from London himself, Lee’s family moved to Aotearoa when he was nine years old, where they settled in central Auckland. He lived a fairly typical Kiwi adolescence until some Halloween mischief at the age of 16 altered his life dramatically.

“I was hanging around some… dubious people,” Lee recalls, with a sardonic grin. “We were the epitome of ‘Idle hands are the Devil’s playthings’. We acquired a motorbike, borrowed without asking, and I fell off around a corner.”

The accident saw Lee slam into a fence, broken ribs puncturing a lung, his T12 vertebrae “smashed into a million pieces”. Stuck on the fence and quickly losing oxygen, Lee was saved by a passerby who lifted him free and helped get him to hospital. This movement, however, led to spinal cord damage that meant he would not walk again.

After spending time in the spinal unit learning basic wheelchair skills, how to transfer from the chair, and generally look after himself, Lee was eager to return to leading a normal teenage life. And, despite the accident, that included hanging out with his old crew again.

“They weren’t bad by nature,” he explains. “We just had time on our hands, so we did stuff, whatever was free and available at the time… If not for them, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now. I mean, breaking my back, sure, but they also helped get me out of my shell afterwards.”

Young and struggling to deal with overwhelming new challenges, Lee found himself turning to drugs and alcohol. He sought to avoid his new reality and isolated himself away from what he imagined were the judgmental perceptions of others. But his friends wouldn’t let him retreat from the world.

“They would tell me, ‘Hey, we’re going to the beach’, and I’d say, ‘well, I’m in a chair’. And they would just say, ‘Yeah, you’re coming to the beach’. We worked out a way to put the chair in the boot of a car, they’d carry me across the beach. 

“They got me around and they got me out.”

Now, Lee looks back on this time not simply as a trauma, but a time of transformation that he remembers with fondness. It was the first of many instances that would see him push beyond limiting beliefs and the beginning of a fine career in competition, costumes, and capers.

It Became Fun

He got by with a little help from his friends, but Lee was still dealing with significant psychological stress. He is very open about his use of drugs and alcohol as temporary coping mechanisms as a teen, but in his early 20s Lee found a healthier path to mental wellness through sport.

It started when a friend gave Lee a racing wheelchair. Content with his less active pursuits at the time, he dutifully stashed the gift in the garage never to be touched again. But when that same friend invited him along to a race, Lee had no choice but to give it a spin.

“Even though I’d never raced before, I felt like I was much fitter than him and thought I’d be better than him. But he wasted me,” Lee remembers with mirth.

Pride wouldn’t allow such an outcome, so Lee challenged his friend to another race. He lost again, and tried again. They did race after race until Lee was finally victorious — and by that point he had caught the racing bug. 

At 22, he had given up smoking and drinking, got himself a coach, and was training to attend the paralympics in earnest.   

“I thought that’s what I wanted to do, but I missed out on qualifying by 0.2 of a second. That’s about the time it takes you to click your fingers.”

Always one to twist disappointment into opportunity, the racer took some time to reflect on what was motivating him. He concluded the paralympics had never been his goal, it was just the assumption placed upon any athlete with a disability. He was really in it for the fun.

To that end, he signed up for New Zealand’s largest fun run, Round the Bays in Auckland. But why make a run merely fun, when you could make it hilarious instead? On a whim, he hired a shaggy gorilla costume and set out on the 8.4km course. 

He came dead last and couldn’t have been happier.

“It was awesome, I loved it! A couple of kids cried, but it was fun. I don’t care about the firsts or the medals or the accolades. Going around afterwards and hearing people say, ‘Oh, did you see that guy in the gorilla suit?’ I really enjoyed that.”

Since then Lee has tried his hand at a number of limit-pushing activities — he’s been the first to crawl the 52-floor Sky Tower, the first solo chair to complete the Lake Taupō Challenge, completed the Tough Guy and Gal Challenge mud run, as well as trying skydiving and rock climbing. And where possible, he’s doing it all in fancy dress, his wardrobe including gorilla, squirrel, and panda costumes, a knight’s armour, a wetsuit, and various superhero outfits.

“I basically started putting my hand up for anything that was fun and took me out of my comfort zone. It also encourages disabled people to see something extra, to know they can do something more.”

The Vegan Edge

People find their way to veganism in various ways. Sometimes it’s a decision that simmers in for a long time, for others it can hit like lightning. For Lee it was the latter, though not so dramatic.

“A week before I went vegan, if you had told me I should even go vegetarian, I would have said not a chance! There’s no way I could do all these activities eating just vegetables.”

The idea was introduced into his life by a woman Lee was dating. She was vegan, but not pushy about it, which he appreciated. Being exposed to plant-based eating options slowly normalised the ideas and he eventually took the plunge simply for efficiency’s sake.

“I’m quite lazy, I didn’t want to cook two meals,” he explains with a characteristic grin. “Her food seemed edible, her meals seemed good, and it went from there.”

Six years later and Lee is loving the vegan life. It’s prompted him to learn much more about nutrition as has powered him through some of his most demanding feats to date. It’s also proved beneficial with certain health concerns.

“For about a year I was struggling with IBS [irritable bowel syndrome]. And being in a wheelchair makes it very challenging to run to the loo, get your pants off, and jump on the toilet… Eating plant-based really helped with the IBS” 

Like many, Lee says he missed cheese and bacon for quite a while, but he’s found the biggest challenge of going vegan has been dealing with the reactions of other people, be it friends or strangers.

“I’ve never had anyone properly tease me for being in a chair, I’ve never been teased or harassed for wearing a costume. But with veganism, it’s always met with a challenge, it feels like you always have to justify it.”

Lee is not one to back down from a challenge. While he’s out there challenging people’s assumptions about people living with disabilities, he’s happy to keep changing minds when it comes to vegan living while he’s at it.

Pushing Forward

With the first of the six great marathons under his belt, Lee is leaning into his preparations for the second. The New York City marathon takes place in early November, and the racer has intensified his training regime with the help of new coach, Dave Mac.

The final four marathons — Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, and Berlin — will be tackled in 2026–27, as Lee needs to take next year off for shoulder surgery. After 35 years in a chair, his shoulders have taken a lot of the brunt that would have been distributed across his hips. A 45-minute surgery should correct the issue, but it will require two months of bed rest and a total of eight months recovery before he can get back to training.

In the downtime, Lee will be planning the next stage of his Six Star Medal attempt, exploring funding options (competing internationally isn’t cheap), and making sure he’s ready to get back to busting expectations — including those that people with disabilities have of themselves. 

“Everyone’s Everest is different. If they see me doing something so stupid and incredible, then they can wheel to the park, or do transfers themselves, or go to the gym, or start getting fit — something that is going to benefit them and help them move forward in their own life.”      

To follow Lee on his Six Star Medal journey, head to leewarn.org. If you’re able to help support his next marathon attempt, you can make a donation at:

www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/nyc-squirrel-marathon-baby

Aotearoa Vegan and Plant Based Living Magazine
This article was sourced from the Spring  2024 edition of The Vegan Society magazine.
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The articles we present in our magazine and blog have been written by many authors and are are not necessarily the views and policies of the Vegan Society.