RUNNING

The Del Mar city council gave organizers of the San Diego Marathon two weeks to devise a suitable traffic-control plan, thus breathing life into a race which last week appeared doomed when city managers of three cities denied it special-use permits.

If organizers can find a solution to a Sherriff’s manpower shortage and can allow for residents West of Old Highway 101--over which the race will be run on Dec. 9--to get around runners, then the council will overturn the city manager’s decision, according to Lynn Flanagan, race director.

If Del Mar reverses its city manager’s decision, Flanagan hopes the councils of Solana Beach and Encinitas will do the same. The three cities contract for service through the same Sherriff’s substation in Encinitas.