Running backward isn’t easy, Justine Galloway will tell you. Fast-moving dogs and small children sometimes trip her, or she’ll miss a crack in the road and fall. She sustains more injuries than she used to—including stress fractures in her feet—and her finishing times have roughly doubled from when she ran, you know, facing forward.
But for Galloway, who once thought she’d never run again, turning around has offered a type of salvation.
A rare neurological condition called runner’s dystonia threatened to rob her of her sport altogether—until she discovered she could do it in reverse. On Sunday, she ran 26.2 miles backward for the first time, completing the Galloway raised more than $5,000 for Parkinsons disease Other Hearst Subscriptions.
Her glutes—and feet—ached, and she had to take a few stretch breaks between mile 22 and the finish, she told Runner’s World afterward. “I got through it—and it was a really cool experience,” she said. “I didn’t even fall once, though there were a few close calls.”
And there was one other important stop. Around mile 23, she grabbed a quick hug from actor Michael J. Fox. While training, Galloway raised more than $5,000 for Parkinson’s disease research through his foundation and Team Fox. (See the video below.)
Galloway began running at age 3, when she’d circle the block with her marathoning father. She ran track and cross country in high school and at Rutgers. In 2002, she completed her first marathon—NYC—and went on to run nine more, logging a personal best of 3:16:48 at the race in 2009.
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Soon after her 30th birthday, Galloway developed a strange feeling of disconnection when she ran. She felt “off” during the 2011 Boston Marathon Pro Runners Ask: Is My Agent Worth the Fee.
“A few weeks later, I started running funny, like my left leg just started not listening to my brain,” she said. “It just wouldn’t turn, wouldn’t do what it had done for the past 30 years.”
At first, she kept forging ahead. Her pace slowed from eight-minute miles to near 11s, her gait stumbling and awkward. She wore a hole in the toe box of a new pair of shoes.
Her symptoms improved slightly on certain surfaces; trails or beaches seemed easier than pavement. But eventually, she felt them when walking and even swimming.
Galloway spent more than a year bouncing from expert to expert—orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, neurologists. She had tests like EMGs—which involve poking electrodes through the skin into her muscles—and MRI scans of nearly every part of her body.
Doctors told her she had everything from a knee injury to multiple sclerosis. One even said it was all in her head.
Finally, a neurology resident mentioned Parkinson’s disease or dyskinesia, conditions involving miscommunication between the muscles and brain. The thought made sense to Galloway, whose father had passed away from Parkinson’s when she was 29.
Armed with these search terms, she went online and found a medical journal article about runner’s dystonia. She brought it in—and soon had her diagnosis.
Runner’s dystonia occurs because of a problem with muscle control, said Jeremy Cutsforth-Gregory, M.D., a movement disorders specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who has treated and studied it. For reasons scientists haven’t yet discerned, the brain can’t activate the muscles needed for running without also firing up surrounding muscles. The extra activation leaves runners in odd postures that interfere with proper movement.
There’s currently no known cure, but some medications or injections can help manage symptoms. Changing up the motor patterns—like running on less-stable surfaces or in different directions—also seems to trick a runner’s brain into firing properly, Cutsforth-Gregory said.
In physical therapy, Galloway had run sideways and backward on a treadmill. So when she read an article soon after her diagnosis about another runner with the same condition who logged her miles in reverse, she decided to give it a shot.
“I’ll run backward, even for just an hour, and I get to see the sights and feel like I’m running again,” she said. “The thing with running backward is, I don’t have to think about where I put my legs. I get injured more quickly, but it’s injuries that aren’t in my brain, which are easier to handle.”
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Since then, Galloway has moved to San Diego—in part because of the easier access to trails and other outdoor exercise options—and run four half marathons in reverse. The 2:46 she ran at the 2015 Rock ’n’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon earned her the Shoes & Gear for the fastest half marathon run backward (though it has since been broken).
To prepare for New York, she ran backward twice a week—with long runs of up to 21 miles—and supplemented with biking, swimming, and other cross-training every other day. She completed the race Sunday with a guide who has helped visually impaired runners through Ironmans.
Though she’s not sure she’ll ever run another full marathon in reverse again, the opportunity to do so brought her additional peace with her diagnosis.
“There are so many other things in this world that are horrible. Me not being able to run long distances is not the worst thing that’s ever happened to anyone in the world,” she said. “Six or seven years ago, I didn’t think I was going to run anything longer than five miles. Now I’m running marathons, so I’m happy.”
Cindy is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to Runner’s World since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both Breakthrough Women’s Running: Dream Big and Train Smart and Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, a book about the psychology of sports injury from Bloomsbury Sport. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, everyday athletes accomplishing extraordinary things, and the active community in her beloved Chicago, where winter forges deep bonds between those brave enough to train through it.
