Category: Events

Three weeks ago, I “went public” with the McNelly Challenge, and my goal to be able to run this year’s Jungle Jog 5K in tribute to its founder, Don McNelly. I asked people to join me in getting fit after 50 (or fit by 50) by setting a goal to walk or run in this year’s event, being held on Sunday, July 16.

I know there are a few you out there who thought, “Yes, I can do that; it’s time.”  Or even, “Sounds like fun, and for a good cause.” Some of you, like me, started or recommitted to an exercise routine to safely prepare you for Jungle Jog.  Some of you have maybe started and stopped.  And some of you are still thinking about starting.

I want to encourage you to stop stopping yourself.  You can do this, and you deserve to do this for yourself. And with eight weeks to go, there’s definitely time.

Believe me, I know it’s difficult to get started. We tell ourselves it’s going to be hard, and we’re not sure we’re going to succeed, and we don’t have the time. We must become our own cheering section. We have to let go of being sure that those who see us when we start will scoff at our efforts. I can promise you many of the people who see you on the treadmill at the gym or exercising outside are thinking, “That’s brave. I wish my dad would start taking care of himself,” and “You go, girl.”

A few days ago, I felt pretty good out there, and could feel myself growing stronger.  I ran a little longer than I had previously without walking, and my lungs didn’t give out so easily.

This morning, everything hurt. I was so slow. I felt every extra pound fighting against my progress. My knees didn’t want to cooperate. The muscles in my upper back were aching.

And then I noticed the bright yellow of a goldfinch, and then the bright red of a robin, and then the bright red and yellow of a red-winged blackbird. I took in the lilacs and the lilies of the valley, every sight and every sound of the beauty of nature in my neighborhood. I made my way up to Lake Ontario and saw the powerful forces of the water on the shore.I choose to run and walk outside because the energy of nature is infectious.  The sunrise I see when I run before work is a reminder that every new day is a new start.  The buds and blossoms, the bees and the moths, the rabbits and chipmunks – they are not just distractions for me but they remind me how lucky we are to be able to experience these things.

They remind me, too, of how important it is that we all commit to being better stewards of this one world we have.

That’s really what the Jungle Jog 5K & Conservation Walk is about: the event raises funds for the education and conservation efforts of Seneca Park Zoo.

Those efforts include connecting people to the nature all around them, as well as wildlife around the world, to inspire them to save these animals from extinction.  Whether it is lemurs in Madagascar or otters in the Genesee River, every creature deserves our best effort.

Maybe, just maybe, that means it’s time for you to join the McNelly Challenge.— Pamela Reed Sanchez, Seneca Park Zoo Society Executive DirectorREGISTER

Today is the first of May, and I’m going to go running for the first time in many months.  I’ll probably end up walking a lot more than running, and that’s okay.  I’ll be starting.  And I’ve been putting off starting for a long time.

My goal? Run the Seneca Park Zoo Society’s Jungle Jog 5K on July 16.

I’ve been down this path before. I started running when I was 48 years old.  I had lost a significant amount of weight, and I decided it was time to get fit, because it would be easier to get fit before I turned 50 than after.  I hated running when I started, but I liked how quickly my body responded to exercise. Each time out, I ran a little farther, I walked a little less, I grew a little stronger. I ran my first marathon a few weeks before I celebrated my 50^th birthday.

I have completed 11 half marathons (13.1 miles), two full marathons (26.2 miles), and a whole bunch of 5K and 10K “races,” including three Jungle Jogs. (That’s me in the picture above, at last year’s Jungle Jog.  And yes, that’s a GoPro on my head.)

I don’t “race.”  I participate.

I will never finish first, and that’s never been my goal. My goal has been to be out there, off the couch, celebrating the fact that I am still capable of walking and running and being outside with the sun (or the wind, or the rain) on my face.

But I stopped running last fall, for a variety of reasons (also known as excuses). I had already put some weight back on, and frankly, I’ve been sedentary and eating far too much.

And then something happened. Don McNelly, the founder of the Zoo’s Jungle Jog 5K, died at age 96. Don, too, started running at age 48, and then proceeded to run more than 700 marathons.

Don was and is an inspiration to many of us, whether due to his passion for wildlife and nature, or his infectious enthusiasm about it NEVER being too late to start running.  Don’s death made me stop and think about how I was letting him down–and letting myself down–by being inactive and allowing excuses to keep me from the joy I feel when I am active and feeling strong.

So, it’s time for me to start my journey to fitness, again.

And I’m wondering if it’s time for you, too. It’s easier to do this knowing you’re not alone, so I’m issuing what we’re calling the McNelly Challenge.

I would love nothing more than to see a group of people of my vintage or older at this year’s Jungle Jog, walking or running the course and supporting one another in our quest to get or be fit after 50. 

We have about ten weeks to work up to walking or running (or some combination of the two) 3.2 miles, which isn’t as insurmountable as you might be thinking.

If you haven’t been exercising at all, your first call is to your physician to make sure you’re physically capable of starting an exercise program.  And then, it’s just about getting out there, a few times a week. Start slowly. Start with a mile. Or a half mile. Whatever pushes you just a little bit is where to start, and then build from there. Slowly.

Life isn’t a race. And neither is the Jungle Jog at Seneca Park Zoo. It’s a morning we spend some time outside in an Olmsted Park and through the Zoo, celebrating what this Zoo means to our community and our families, and raising funds for the Zoo and for lemur conservation.

You can follow my journey on my Facebook page (Pamela Reed Sanchez) and on Twitter, and you can share your own journey with me on social media, using #McNellyChallenge.

I hope you’ll help me create a community of people honoring the legacy of Don McNelly by participating in this year’s Jungle Jog 5K and Conservation Walk.— Pamela Reed Sanchez, Seneca Park Zoo Society Executive DirectorRegistration for Jungle Jog opens May 3.MORE INFO + REGISTERNeed help getting started?The Couch to 5K app is a training plan to help you move from the couch to the finish line of a 5k.DOWNLOAD THE APP

Last week, the Seneca Park Zoo Society hosted Dr. Drew Lanham–conservationist, professor, author, and activist–for several days of talks and activities about nature and race in Rochester.

Dr. Lanham has delivered talks on this subject internationally and advocates for a more democratic and artistic approach to environmentalism, especially in activities such as bird watching.

In his video manifesto Rules for the Black Birdwatcher Lanham laments the dearth of black birdwatchers: “When I meet another black birder, it’s like encountering an ivory-billed wood-pecker—an endangered species. Extinction looms.”

His advocacy work, research, and writing are about finding solutions to this inequity through open conversation. His new memoir The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature is an affecting exploration of what it means to be a person of color in love with nature.

Lanham holds a BA and MS in Zoology and a PhD in Forest Resources and is an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology at Clemson University.

On Monday, Dr. Lanham first met with staff from the Seneca Park Zoo Society for an informal lunch discussion, considering topics like the challenges modern Zoos face in drawing young and urban audiences.

Later in the afternoon, he met with undergraduate students from Rochester Institute of Technology and talked with them about pursuing careers about which they are passionate. Thanks to the RIT Office of Diversity and Inclusion for making the conversation possible.

Before heading to a dinner with several Rochester community activists and influencers, Dr. Lanham made a stop at the City of Rochester Humbolt Recreation Center. There, he talked with a group of after-school program students about his experiences around the world as an academic and nature lover. He also encouraged the students to pick a dream and fly towards it–even if they had uncertainties. “We all have that special place that we can travel in our minds,” he pointed out to them. “Go there for inspiration.”

On Tuesday, Dr. Lanham traveled to several schools in the area, including World of Inquiry, School Without Walls, and Nathaniel Rochester Community School. At Nathaniel Rochester Community School, he offered a large group of students simple advice on how to become scientists at heart: make observations. Noticing interesting things and thinking about why they interest you, he said, are great ways to discover what you want to do with your life. Comparing potential obstacles in the course of students’ education to the perseverance of the birds he studies, he told them: “If you were a warbler you’d still be flying. You’ve got somewhere to be.”

Later that afternoon, Dr. Lanham and Zoo Society Executive Director Pamela Reed Sanchez were guests on the radio program Connections with Evan Dawson on WXXI. They discussed the memoir, finding nature in the inner city, and more.

Listen to their conversation: WXXI Connections: Bringing Diversity Into Conservation and Nature

On Tuesday evening, Dr. Lanham traveled back to RIT to deliver a lecture titled The Uncomfortable Elephant Bird of Color in the Room: Addressing the Coming Changes in Conservation, cosponsored by RIT’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

The talk focused on “range mapping” for both people and birds. Dr. Lanham compared the ways in which environmental factors–weather conditions for birds or political climate for humans, for example–can open up or limit the expansiveness of individual range maps.

 

On Wednesday, Rochester Birding Association member Greg Lawrence led Dr. Lanham and Zoo staff on a bird watching expedition at Ontario Beach Park and Braddock Bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Zoo Society thanks Dr. Lanham for bringing his unique perspective to Rochester for a few days, and looks forward to continuing the conversation. We look forward to partnering with Dr. Lanham in the future and know he’ll be back in Rochester soon!

Top image courtesy of Clemson University

This Saturday and Sunday we will be celebrating My Genesee Weekend, with a focus on animals from the local region. I have the great opportunity to work with some of these animals at the Zoo and hope you’ll visit them!

If you’re looking to learn more about lake sturgeon when you come to the Zoo, head to the Genesee Trail near Eagle’s Landing Cafe. Did you know we have three brand new sturgeon in the aquarium in the ECO Center? Their names are Ryan, Matthew, and Carter. They are one year old and weigh around 20 grams. Right now, they are being fed frozen blood worms and mysis shrimp two times a day.

When we feed the sturgeon, we put them in a smaller container so we can monitor their eating and it is easier to find food. They get weighed every week to ensure they are continually growing and gaining weight. This summer, our other sturgeon, Badger, Blotch and Bullseye, outgrew the ECO Center aquarium and were moved into the pond near where the bald eagle, Abe, resides.

Another animal being featured this weekend is the North American river otter. This is also one of my favorite animals to work with! We have three otters at the Zoo: 13-year-old sisters Heather and Sara, and our male 9-year-old otter, Sailor. Did you know that the otters participate in scientific research? As part of a project being conducted this summer by Dr. Caroline Delong of RIT, each otter is trained to learn object and color recognition behaviors.

This study is testing to see how well they can distinguish different shapes, which could have interesting conservation implications for this species. You can read more about this work is this summer’s ZooNooz.

Sturgeon and otters are just two of the amazing species that make up the unique ecosystem of the Genesee River Valley. Head to the Zoo this Saturday and Sunday for My Genesee Weekend to learn more about the biodiversity of this region and what you can do to help protect it.

–Catina Wright, Zoo Keeper