3,300 Miles With an Artificial Leg : Running on Courage Every Step of the Way

His artificial leg had to be replaced five times along the way, and he wore out 36 pairs of sneakers. But Jeff Keith is a stubborn kind of guy.

And, so, the 22-year-old Boston College graduate, who lost a leg to cancer as a child, fulfilled his vow and jogged into Marina del Rey Monday to complete an eight-month, 3,300-mile run across the United States.

“I wanted to show that people like me are physically challenged, not physically handicapped,” Keith said, swigging from a bottle of champagne. “Handicapped is too negative of a word. This was for all the people in hospitals and rehab centers, for anyone confined--to show that they can overcome their disabilities.”

His journey was sponsored by the American Cancer Society, which said he raised $120,000 in contributions, many pledged via a special national telephone line (1-800-JEFF-RUN).

Keith, who set out June 4 from Boston with a motor trailer and a handful of friends, ran through 100-degree heat in the East, 45-m.p.h. winds in Ohio, tornado watches in Indiana, two weeks of steady rain in Missouri and snow in the Texas Panhandle and along the Continental Divide.

Monday, it was time for the rewards.

In a ceremony at Burton Chace Park, he received a telephone call from President Reagan extending him “the gratitude of all of America,” a handshake and praise from Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, a congratulatory letter from Gov. George Deukmejian, a full scholarship from USC to attend graduate school and a tray of wet cement in which to leave an imprint for a park display.

“Which foot do you want me to use?” he joked.

Then, Keith asked to be thrown into the Pacific Ocean by members of his entourage, who complied enthusiastically.

Not everyone had been so ebullient when he first came up with the idea for the journey, he recalled. He had been inspired by cancer victim Terry Fox, an amputee who jogged across two-thirds of Canada before succumbing to the disease.

“There were a lot of doubters,” Keith said.

Even Keith’s mother, Donna, recalled feeling apprehensive when “Jeff called me up at 4 in the morning the day he was going to begin and asked, ‘Mom, which bag did you pack my sneakers in?’ I thought, ‘And he’s going to run 3,000 miles. . . ?’ ”

Keith himself never doubted.

After all, the Fairfield, Conn., resident had recovered from the cancer operation at the age of 12 to become an avid skier, lacrosse player and triathlete, finishing one competition that entailed a 1 1/2-mile swim, 25-mile bicycle ride and 9-mile run.

So it was no surprise to him that he was able to keep up a 12-mile-a-day pace with his six-pound plastic leg, which is equipped with a hydraulic knee mechanism and an artificial foot with movable toes.

Asked his most heart-warming moment, he said it was a thank-you note from a young cancer victim in a Missouri hospital, whose leg amputation had been postponed a day so that Keith could give him a pep talk.

“He wrote me, ‘Thanks for being there when I needed you,’ ” Keith said.

Keith’s journey went so smoothly the last few weeks, that he got ahead of himself and had to limit himself to a six-mile jaunt along Venice and Lincoln boulevards and Mindinao Way the last day, accompanied by Ram placekicker Mike Lansford, Olympic boxing champion Paul Gonzales and volunteer Alan Burdick, who frantically passed out flyers describing Keith’s cause as he ran.

When it was all over, spectator Luis Hernandez, a disabled 24-year-old USC student, said of Keith’s run: “It doesn’t matter if you’re able or disabled. It was inspiring.”