It seems to have taken ages. Mostly this is due to injury. I started my fitness regime in April 2008 but that winter I lost three months due to injury and basically started again in Jan '09. By that summer I'd managed 9 miles but never got near again before another injury lost me 6 weeks over that Xmas. That brings me to 2010 and I've was very careful to up my mileage by only small amounts every other other week until I was confident that I was injury free.
That was in the spring and since then I've built myself a bi-weekly schedule that allows for increased mileage if I feel like it. It seems to work.
I hit my wall at about 3.5-4 miles. For weeks/months I couldn't seem to get beyond that distance. In the end it was down to perseverance that got to go further. I also started running in the woods and around a lake near me. There were so many routes that I managed to gain distance while being distracted by the new paths. I also found that it helped immensely by starting off a lot slower than I had been and doing my new, long runs at a slower pace.
In short, just keep at it.
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