Hello guys,
thanks for the answer. Setting the animation playback speed ratio to -1, played the animation in reverse at 100% speed. :-P
And yes, you are right. The animation does look very odd. But at the moment, I'm working on enemy AI, so I just need a basic visual representation of the action (my character looks like he is doing a drunk moon-walk). Once I have nailed the AI, I will work on the animation. Plus, as RunnerPack rightly noted, having ability to run animations in reverse could be very useful - for example, I'm looking at implementing a rewind function.