A country mile

I have heard the phrase "as long as a country mile" before, but I have never really understood what that meant until this morning.
For my marathon training, today is where the rubber really hit the road. I have disciplined myself to run at home, incorporating it into my daily routine. Right now, I am on a short getaway with my family in Branson, Mo. After a great day at Silver Dollar City yesterday, getting up and running in the cold was not the first thing I wanted to do. But, i have to run 3 miles today, making 9 for the week, and 40 overall.
So, not really motivated but knowing I had to, I took to the road. It started with the steepest hill I have ever run on. After a half mile I was totally winded. At the top of the hill, I started down a nice incline, great pace. I looked down at my watch and saw I had been running downhill for over a mile. What goes down must come back and, and as I ran back up a hill that was over a mile long, and everything hurt and burned, I knew what a country mile was!
I do feel a big difference even just three weeks into training. I don't think I would have finished this run comfortably three weeks ago, but I did this morning. I will be doing the whole thing again in the morning, 4 miles this time. Should be a fun run.