Updated Sept. 22 at 8:27pm: CHP Sgt. Dan Paxton of the South Lake Tahoe office said tonight, “The marathon will go on and we will be involved.” Patrolmen can do traffic control, they just can’t bill anyone for it, Paxton said of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mandate.

To the community,

An unbelievable political event has occurred. The governor of California has canceled all Caltrans encroachment permits onto the state highways and CHP overtime affecting our event and leaving us without dedicated CHP protection.

I have no intention of canceling our events. City, county, and federal services are still available. And the common intelligence of our athletes will provide common sense safety.

Athletes are coming from all over the world for this event. We will bike and run as planned with some safety modifications. The swim, kayak, and golf events are not affected.

I will ask the city of South Lake Tahoe, and El Dorado and Placer counties to help provide for our safety issues.

We will run on the side of the road facing traffic. Bikes will obey all traffic regulations as already stated in the rules.

I will update everyone at the volunteer meeting tonight [Sept. 22] at 6pm at the Horizon casino.

The governor is trying to force the state Legislature to pass the state budget. He obviously wants the citizens, and in this case, our runners, to call and pressure their individual legislators. The first step would be to contact the governor’s office to impress upon him the unfairness of canceling this event, especially so close to the date. His office phone number is (916) 445.2841 and the fax number is (916) 558.3160.

Les Wright, Lake Tahoe Marathon director