Before Marlene Runyard retired from the Waukegan Police Department after 30 years as an officer, she began doing yoga. From the time she got ready to leave on a call until she arrived, she said she benefitted from the techniques she learned.
“I was able to clear my mind on the way to the call,” Runyard said. “I used the breathing techniques. It lets you be prepared for what you have to do. I decided my retirement job was going to be yoga.”
Starting to practice yoga in 1997 while still a police officer, Runyard became an instructor 11 years later in 2008. She conducts classes for the Waukegan Park District, the Waukegan Public Library and in Lake Forest, among other places.
Haley Krueger is one of Runyard’s students. She finds a weekly morning yoga session an excellent way to clear her mind, start her weekend and get ready for the coming week in her dual roles.
“I’m a mom and a teacher, and this is my only moment of peace,” she said.
Krieger was one of more than 80 people participating in a yoga session led by Runyard Saturday morning at the Waukegan Municipal Beach, listening to Runyard’s instructions and moving with them.
A joint effort between the city of Waukegan and the Waukegan Park District, the hourlong free yoga class starts at 8 a.m. Saturdays through Sept. 28. Participants must bring their own mat to place on the brick surface of the Stiner Pavilion or the grass around it.
For some people like Amy Grutzmacher, the surface makes a difference. When the class was smaller, she said everyone was on the pavilion’s bricks. As the group grew over the years — Saturday was the season’s third session — more people found a spot on the grass.
“There’s a slight hill on the grass,” Grutzmacher said. “The hill makes my feet harder to move.”
Centuries-old, Runyard said the first written evidence of the “yoga philosophy” was the Yoga Sutras penned between 2,200 and 2,500 years ago. It has helped people since.
“It’s an ancient system of moves which is a connection by the mind, the body and the breath,” she said. “You focus on the moves, and let everything else go. It gets people to reconnect with themselves, or connect with nature. It lets you slow down and be present.”
Speaking in a gentle voice, Runyard continually gave different instructions as the class moved — sometimes in unison, and some of the time with a little individuality — purposefully.
“The heel comes downward and the shoulder stays downward,” she said during the class. “Feel the sun and the air as you settle in with your next inhalation.”
Mike Lapke, one of the participants Saturday, was forced to reconnect with himself during the class. He said he had to take an important phone call from a friend. He left the area, talked to the friend and returned. Yoga techniques let him put his mind back in class.
“I concentrated on my breathing and came back into the here and now of the spirit of yoga,” he said.
Not everyone in the class did precisely the same thing when hearing Runyard’s instructions. She said those moments of individuality are part of yoga, especially at the beach where elements of nature intervene.
David Motley, the city’s director of public relations, is a member of the class. He said he has long found yoga helpful in his life in a variety of ways. The beach setting adds to the class for him.
“The Waukegan beach is such a unique location,” he said. “You hear so many sounds of nature like the lake and the birds. Then, there’s the traffic and the trains.”
Carol Krueger, Haley’s mother and another participant, said as she moves to Runyard’s instructions as well as the sounds of the lakefront, she finds a special comfort.
“I’m in my own zone,” she said. “I like hearing the birds or the waves.”
“It gives you rhythm to your breathing,” added Laura O’Connor, another member of the class.
