Alistair Rutherford, known more widely as The Running Viola, is a British athlete, musician and television personality. He is a current double

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

holder for the fastest marathon and the fastest half marathon dressed as a musical instrument.

Career

Originally from

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, Rutherford studied as a violist at the

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is a music school, drama school and concert venue in Birmingham, England. It provides education in music, acting, and related disciplines up to postgraduate level. It is a centre for scholarly research and docto ...

, graduating in 2017. The concept of The Running Viola came to him as an idea to raise money for ''arco'', a charity providing musical education for children in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in conjunction with

Birmingham City University Birmingham City University (abbrev. BCU) is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic in 1971 an ...

and the Morris Isaacson Centre for Music. He has since become the manager of the project.

References

1995 births Living people British classical violists British male long-distance runners British male marathon runners Alumni of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire English male long-distance runners Sportspeople from Liverpool Musicians from Liverpool English male marathon runners 21st-century English sportsmen {{UK-musician-stub