Running On Empty!

Well it's October and the Des Moines Marathon is this weekend (Oct. 19) and it's pretty apparent I won't be running the 1/2 marathon. That had been my goal, and still is, but I have to accept that it just isn't going to happen this year.
Sigh
It's been a pretty good year overall, I ran the Dam to Dam 2ok, just days after fighting off a flu bug. I ran the entire race, finished and felt good. Heather ran the 5K and Sarah ran in the 10 year old race. It was a good day.
But after that, for some reason, my motivation dried up. I had nothing. On top of that my performance sucked. I could barely run at all. It all led to a downhill slide that ended with me taking a two or three week break from running and several weeks of very limited walking or slow jogging.
Now I've started again and am trying to keep my goals modest so as to not be disappointed. I feel like it's going ok, but I can't help but viewing the whole thing as a set-back. Even so I'm not upset or unhappy. It happens, I'll work through it and try again next year.
I WILL run a marathon, if I have to live to 90, I WILL run a marathon.
As a result of the layoff I've also managed to gain a bunch of weight. So I want to really focus on losing weight this year. I think that will probably do more to improve my running than actual running will do at this point.

So here are my major goals for next year.
1) Drake 1/2 marathon in April - A longshot right now, but reachable with work
2) Dam t0 Dam 20K - its becoming a family tradition!
3) Des Moines ?????