They are working hard, but it's an uphill pull.

As we strive for reform we find that it is not at all merely the case of a long uphill pull.

Just before lunch we had a very stiff uphill pull and then a drop into a large basin, three-quarters of a mile in diameter.

A mile of comparatively slack water brought them out into one of the larger estuaries of the river, and there the long, uphill pull began.