I've been in a half-marathon training team (for the Richmond Half, if anybody cares) and have gone from never having run more than 2.5 miles straight to doing 10 miles with only a few minutes at SAG stops a couple days ago. I don't intend to be much of a long-distance runner but I'd like to do a marathon in the near-ish future and I'd like to be able to keep in good enough shape to do a 10k at least yearly without having to start from scratch in my training.

I prefer lifting for the most part but I'd definitely be able to do a couple-few miles a few times a week to keep a baseline. What's a good plan to keep going? 2 miles a day, twice a week on the weekdays, and 4-5 on a weekend day? 3 miles 3 or 4 times a week?

Assume I don't have time or inclination to do 6 miles a day 6 days a week or anything like that.

Depends on your distance goals.  Metabolic adaptations to endurance exercise take a while to happen but only 2 weeks to a detrained state.  If you want to be able to at least run 10ks, then run at least that in a week, and then when a half pops up youre interested, increase your mileage.

How nearish in the future do you want to attempt a marathon?

Probably between 1 and 2 years. If I can fit it in with work and classes I'd like to do the 2015 Marine Corps marathon, or if not then the next year. Assuming I can get in.

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Thats plenty of time to ramp up your mileage when you decide to run it, so if I were you Id just keep your weekly mileage around 25-30 for 10k distances depending on how many days you feel you need to train.