working up to long distances

kami, thanks for your comment! i feel your pain! i felt like that before my half marathon. here is a good schedule to go by {or something similar}:
start by running 1.5 miles monday & wednesday {or tues & thurs}, then try pushing yourself and running 3 miles on saturday {dont worry at all about speed!}
do that for a couple weeks until you feel comfortable.
once you are comfortable with that run 2 miles monday & wednesday and then 4 miles on saturday {again, do not worry about speed! just endurance}
do that for a couple weeks until you feel comfortable
then continue with the pattern moving up a half mile during the week and a mile on the weekends. does that make sense? the saturday runs are not supposed to be easy by any means. they never were for me. but you learn to push yourself. and be positive! most of it is mental!! this is true. if you think to yourself that its no big deal to just go do a light long run, then it wont be. dont feel pressure to run fast!!
feel free to do each one as many weeks as you need to.
try to do a small workout the days between runs and give yourself the day to rest before your long run and also sunday of course :)
small workouts might include, the stair master, bike, weight training {i like the leg workouts and the ab workouts. getting your abs strong will help you to not get as bad of cramps when running!!}, etc.
another tip. if you run on the streets, run in a large circle instead of running down to a certain street and back. it makes the run much more enjoyable and feels a lot shorter!!!
did this help? i hope so! if you have any questions about it let me know! :)