Name: Mark Scherschel

City: Bedford

Age: 60

Profession: CPA

Describe your fitness routine: My goal every year is to run the Indy Mini-Marathon. I run five days a week and in February I begin a training program for the mini. This will be my 15th mini-marathon. I walked the first couple before I started running them. I started running because I could get done faster than when I was walking. I also run several 5K races during the year.

How do you de-stress: Horseback riding is what I do for stress relief. I’ve been interested in horses all my life. I acquired one about seven years ago. I ride as often as I can, about twice a week. I do most of my riding in enclosed areas, but I also do some trail riding.

Best lifestyle change in the last five years: I haven’t changed too many things, but I found out I had high cholesterol and changed my diet. I’m very careful about my diet and became more careful in some ways.

Health/fitness advice: Everyone needs to be involved in a fitness program and it should be something you enjoy. Some can’t understand my running. They see it as either too routine or too demanding, but running and horseback riding allow me to do other active things.

What motivates you: A few times I’ve had a true runner’s high. That’s particularly appealing, but it doesn’t happen very often. Being fit gives me the ability to do what I love to do.

Who inspires you: Hal Higdon, runner and author of books on running, really inspires me. When he was 70, he did seven marathons. Someone like that really inspires me and several local runners also inspire me.

Where inspires you: At Indianapolis, it’s the only time you get to go around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track on foot and that’s pretty exciting. I’ve done five marathons and when you’re running a marathon, you get into it with this big group of people. I ran the Chicago Marathon and you see a part of a city that you may not see otherwise.