‘Orange Is The New Black’ Star Uzo Aduba Runs Boston Marathon

Orange Is The New Black star Uzo Aduba, AKA Crazy Eyes, made her hometown proud on Monday as she finished the Boston Marathon in just over 5 hours.The Boston University graduate wanted to use her track and field experience for a cause close to her heart. That cause would be cancer awareness.

The 33-year-old ran as part of the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge 2105 Team. Saying that Uzo’s life has been affected by cancer is a serious understatement. Aduba lost her friend Andrea Tasher to breast cancer in October, whom she called her “second mom.” Also, she has lost a cousin to breast cancer and an aunt to leukemia. She currently has another aunt fighting breast cancer. Uzo marked her racing shirt with Andrea’s name on the front. “I’m doing it for someone who really, truly, when I was growing up, helped me to realize my dreams and who isn’t with us anymore. And she was an amazing woman… When [she passed] this past October, I needed to do something.” Aduba told Women’s Health Magazine.

The Emmy award winner finished with an official time of 5:03 (about a 12-minute mile). More impressive is that Aduba raised over $10,000 for the Cancer Institute’s Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. She even took time before the event to tour the famed center with Dr. David Weinstock on Saturday.

The Medfield native grew up watching the races as a spectator and was very excited to have the opportunity to be a participant. “Marathon Monday, that’s what we call it,” Aduba said in an interview with Huffington Post. “It’s such a great tradition that we all love and are so proud to have in our city.”

This is Aduba’s second marathon. She thought that, two years after the bombings at the Boston Marathon, it was time for her to run the race in her hometown after running in the 2013 New York City Marathon. “It feels like the right thing to do,” Uzo Aduba told People Magazine that”it still feel pretty raw, and with [the trial] it almost feels like a Band-Aid getting pulled back again. That’s where I grew up, where I learned what a marathon even was … to be a part of it, it feels particularly special.”

Uzo Aduba’s show, Orange Is The New Black, will premiere on Netflix on June 12. Orange Is The New Black was also renewed for a fourth season, set to premiere in 2016.

[Image Source: Paul Moratta/Getty Images]