Sara Cravens On Planned Parenthood

The following is reprinted, with permission, from Sara Craven's FaceBook page.

Sara is a comedic actress now residing in Los Angeles. She was born and raised in Tenesee and is a proud Christian. Her post about the necessity of Planned Parenthood was one of the most thoughtful writings on the subject I have ever come across. For those of you who think the battle for Planned Parenthood is a secular vs Christian battle, please consider the following:

It is unfathomable to me that any woman could vote for Romney/Ryan. For many reasons, but the health issue particularly hits home for me...

I'm not looking to start an argument, however I feel it's necessary to give a real-life tangible account, to counter the inaccuracies that are being spouted off about Planned Parenthood (when I'm certain most of these spouting-folks have never set foot inside a Planned Parenthood and obviously have NO CLUE what they do there.)

2 years ago I transitioned from a corporate job to being a full time actor, and with that transition, I obviously lost my cushy corporate-job insurance. Pap smears and cancer screenings are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for women. Wanna know where I got my pap smear and cancer screenings? Planned Parenthood.

Have I ever gotten an abortion and do I ever intend to get an abortion? No. Were most of the women there with me getting the same screenings/checkups as I was? Yes. Am I so excited at the prospect of making a ton of money someday so I can donate gobs of my money to amazing facilities like Planned Parenthood that helped me out when I needed it? You bet I am.

It's not a satanic abortion house, ill-informed persons. Please get your facts straight before talking about a facility that is a beautiful place doing a lot of wonderful things for women.

Ladies, stand up for yourself. OBAMA is fighting to protect your rights.

And also might I add, bet on the 47%ers. Some of us actually make something of ourselves...and gladly return the favor when we're able :)

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5K Blog: Toddy Ran Wild... No... Really!

A few thoughts about the race on Saturday:

1. Mornings are no damn time to run a race for me. I prefer sometime like 3 in the afternoon.

2. I love my sister dearly but there is no excuse whatsoever of a photo of myself stretching my quadriceps. Except perhaps for the caption I gave it....

3.It was very nice for my parents to show up. Especially since Dad wasn't feeling very good that morning and Mom has this fear her presence causes bad things to happen. At my age and girth she was probably worried about me having a heart attack. ;-)

4. McDonald's as one of the sponsors? Really? Jared hates state parks or something? I'm just glad Ronald didn't make it because with my severe clown phobia it would have become ugly.

5. I did not prepare for that first hill and it was a doozy. Fortunately Ashley already knew about it and recommended we walk up it. Hill training must be added to my regimen.

6. I'm not sure if people were impressed, amazed or shocked when they saw me run but I sure did get a bunch of double-takes.

Although Ashley denies it, I'm pretty sure she wanted to get a legitimate workout in after the warm-up with me. ;-)

As far as the race itself, I didn't do too badly even though my lungs were locked tighter than they have since I picked it up again following my month's hiatus. (Respitory infection?) The first mile was rough but during the walking mile my lungs started opening up. Not only was I able to run the last mile, I did it in 12:05 (unofficial) which is one of my best times running a mile since I started this project.

So ends my the chronicles of how a middle-aged, over-weight couch-potato and recently recovering chain smoker (2 packs a day) went from barely even able to run 20 seconds at a crack to running almost two-thirds of a 3 mile race. This, of course, is not the end of journey. In fact, in about an hour it's back to the grind.

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5K Blog: Workouts 39 & 40 plus final thoughts.

Workout 39

Goal: 1.3 miles

Completed: 1.3 miles

The old lungs are still locked tighter than a virgin's chastity belt but I was able to reach my goal. This marks the last of the conditioning workouts as Thursday's will be a much shorter run just long enough to remind my body it still does runs.

Workout 40

Goal: Pace myself faster than comfortable for as long as I can go

Result: .46 miles

I decided to try something different to try to loosen my lungs up. I ran faster than I wabted to until I just couldn't go. It helped as I started having a productive cough soon after. Hopefully, I will feel the difference on Saturday.

Final Thoughts

As I look back on my training, I see how very far I have come. When I first started, the thought of ever being able to run a mile or more was rather daunting. However, I stuck with it and I am confident I will be able to run a mile, walk a mile then run that final mile. This is a far cry from my original go of running the entire race with an average speed of 6 miles per hour. Obviously, I was being pretty ambitious and even though I missed my original goals, I still traveled a long way and I'm not done yet. My training will continue.

At this time I would like to thank the people who helped me out on this endeavor:

My sister Trisha who's example during the Green Bay Marathon helped inspire me on this project.

My parents for giving me encouragement along the way.

My sibblings and friends on FB and on Twitter for giving me support.

Last (but certainly not least by a long shot) a huge thank you goes out to my sister Ashley. Not only did her running in the Green Bay Marathon help inspire me to start this project but her continual advice (How very wonderful to have a certified personal trainer in the family!), encouragement and emotional support really put this thing together. She also did this during a very rough and emotional time in her life. Thank you so very much coach Tickle-Squirt.

Let's do this thing of ours.

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