Next A-Thon?

Okay so one of my sister's Christmas presents was that she would pay for my next "_____-a-thon". I know, most of you are probably thinking how nice she is to pay my entry fee so that I could put myself through the training ringer again. It is thoughtful but also in-part self-serving because my sister knows she would be running that race and there is no better motivation than to sign-up for a race with someone. I gotta give my sister credit though, out of our original marathon running club we were the only ones that actually made it to the race. So the question is, which race is next?

Here are some options on the table:
Chicago :: August 1st
Virginia Beach :: September 5th
Philadelphia :: September 19th

As of right now it is looking like Virginia Beach which will give me ample time and a good target to aim for. I've just started ramping up my training again and it has been a mix of unusual runs. Recently I've been able to run 4 and 5 miles in the low 7s, but when I went to finish a 5k in under 20mins I gassed out halfway. I will have to continue training and then try it again next month. I don't want to start thinking about "time goals' yet for my next half-marathon (I'm not training for a marathon til I have the time to properly train). I can only say that I'd like to just beat my personal best of 1:41.

The "X" factor in my training will be my weight. Right now I am hovering around 204 and it is going to be difficult to get below 200. I've been doing a lot more weight lifting and have been on a protein-heavy diet. So, as my mileage increases it is going to be an interesting battle between adding muscle weight and dropping extra weight through cardio. I would not be surprised if I stayed the same weight throughout this whole 6 month ramp-up - but it will be an interesting self-experiment.