I would walk 500 miles

Mark Boyle is on a journey.

It’s not really a journey with any deep meaning. Really, it’s just to prove something to himself.

A challenge for challenge’s sake.

But in his challenge, he’s also raising money for children with life-threatening illnesses.

Step by step, mile by mile, small Indiana town by small Indiana town, Boyle is accomplishing both goals — meeting his own challenge and doing something for a greater cause.

Boyle, the radio play-by-play announcer for the Indiana Pacers, is on a 5-week, 500-mile walk around the state of Indiana.

On Saturday, he made the 21-mile trek from Nashville, Ind. to Bloomington. He will head out Monday morning to Spencer, Ind. What started in Fort Wayne in mid-August and wound through eastern Indiana will loop toward Terre Haute and eventually end at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course in Indianapolis on Sept. 21.

He’s 285 miles down and has just 215 to go.

Boyle makes it clear why he decided to attempt this challenge.

“Because I wanted to see if I could walk 500 miles,” Boyle said. “It’s no more complicated than that.”

But with the help from his employer — the Indiana Pacers — several sponsors, volunteers and many donations, his walk developed a greater purpose. Boyle is using his trek to raise money for the Indiana Children’s Wish Fund, an organization devoted to granting wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses.

The goal is to raise $50,000 to be able to grant wishes to 20 children, said Terry Ceaser-Hudson, executive director for the Indiana Children’s Wish Fund.

On the road, Boyle doesn’t draw much attention. Some days he has police escort, but most days, like Saturday, he was walking by himself against the traffic across SR 45.

Each day, he sports Stewie Griffin pajama pants (he’s got two pairs that showcase the cartoon baby and Boyle’s hero from “Family Guy”), a pair of well-worn walking shoes (he has a backup pair when these go out), a bright green construction vest and headphones, and he carries a Gatorade.

He had Jay-Z playing in the headphones Saturday. His listening choices range from NPR’s Talk of the Nation to Dan LeBatard’s sports radio show to the Four Tops to hip-hop music.

“What? I’m too old to listen to that?” he asked.

Accompanying Boyle on the journey is a luxury RV, provided by Camping World, one of the sponsors for his walk. The drivers of the RV rotate each week, and many of them are Boyle’s friends and associates.

Boyle is not living in simplicity during the walk. He proudly shows off the RV, which still has the $200,000 price tag posted on the front window. Inside, he keeps a blog on his laptop, has two flat screen televisions, a full kitchen and a washer and dryer.

When he can’t get an Internet connection in his RV to update his blog, he finds a local McDonald’s to use free Wi-Fi. Boyle’s first destination in Bloomington was a McDonald’s.

Boyle is not averse to strange summer adventures. While he remains under contract with the Pacers, his summers are often free. One year, he went piranha fishing in the Amazon, and another year he traveled to Montana to serve as a play-by-play broadcaster for a single-A baseball team.

Last year, he worked at a coffee shop.

Meeting new people seems to be a theme uniting many of his summer ideas. This summer is much the same — Boyle has made it a point to meet people in the towns in which he stops. One of his favorite stops to date was in Milan, Ind., where he enjoyed the local high school football game.

He said his inspirations for these ideas come from his imagination.

“Something normally comes to me, and it starts to blossom in my brain around December or January,” Boyle said.

Ceaser-Hudson sees Boyle’s walk as an opportunity for her organization.

“For someone to decide to do something like this and then decide to do it for charity takes a real special kind of person,” Ceaser-Hudson said. “He believes in our organization, and I think he wanted to see if he could do this thing and do it for a good cause. He’s like a hero to me.”

Kent Sterling, an Indianapolis radio personality and friend of Boyle, volunteered to drive the RV for the last week. Sterling readily admits two things: He will never drive an RV again after this week.

“I’d feel more comfortable driving an Indy car,” he said.

And he has great admiration for Boyle.

“He is a very committed guy,” Sterling said. “When he commits to something, he does it full-bore. He likes to get out of his comfort zone in certain ways.”

For Boyle, a 500-mile walk — just another summer adventure — is a part of his personality.

Does that make him crazy?

“Yes, but I like being different,” Boyle said. “It doesn’t bother me. If you define eccentric and crazy as outside the norm, then I guess I’m eccentric and crazy. Well, maybe not crazy, but definitely eccentric.”

For more on Mark Boyle’s “Wish Walk"

— Visit his blog
— Follow Mark on Twitter