The Backwards Runner: Session Musician Shadrack Anderson

Session musician Shadrack Anderson has played with the greats — Little Richard, Buddy Miles, Ray Charles, ELO. But he has a second occupation that may be even more impressive. He is a long-distance runner, currently running all the way across America, from the west coast to the east. And he is doing it backwards. Really.

Mr. Anderson took time from his run to talk to me about what inspired him to run backwards, what he thinks about when he runs, and which musician taught him the most.

What exactly are you doing? How did it start?

It’s the backwards run from San Francisco to New York.

I have been a backwards runner since 1966. I didn’t start doing it; was something that started doing me. I never had any idea that I would run backwards. I never wanted to. I was in a trance when it first happened and when I woke up in the trance I had out-of-body observational of myself doing something that I’ve never done before. What it did to me and for me was gave me increase in all of my five senses. They increased dramatically. And my extrasensory perception is where my first sense in another dimension now starts. It’s absolutely amazing what the human body can do outside of the first five senses that we have.