To get to U.S. 178, you've got to take an 8-mile detour. If you can cut a 10-mile trip down to a 4-mile trip, it's less expensive, but if they need it [the construction], they need it.

We cut back some of our purchasing, our projected purchasing. We've also cut back some of our staffing. The last time they had a project out here, it lasted three months. We had a 30% drop in revenues.

At a personal level, when I moved from the 1/2 mile to the mile as a college junior, I used the experiences and stories of those milers who came before me for education and inspiration. Don, too, moved from the 1/2 mile to the mile in college, and his 3:58.7, which made him the third-fastest miler ever when he ran it, was remarkable in part because he ran it on the same day that he took a final exam in Berkeley. For an athlete like myself, who aspired to be a student and an athlete throughout my career, Don was and is a true role model.

We can cut the expenditures, but then the revenues just start piling up.

Given the fact that more than 50 years since the first sub-four-minute mile, we still celebrate an athlete's first time under that barrier, Don's achievement remains remarkable,

I'm just like anyone. I cut and I bleed. And I embarass easily.