I had peak weight of over 15 stone, started running at 14 and a half, upper end of good weight for me is 10 stone 6. At my worst I was having to take breaks on the walk back from the supermarket and going up the 2 floors to my flat. I was also getting a lot of pains in my knees. At the time I started running I was gradually re-gaining weight having lost it on the Atkins diet, and felt I was looking at ending up in a wheelchair if I didn't do something to change my course in life.
2 years on I'm 13 stone and gradually losing at the moment. I can now run 3 miles without stopping to walk. I have confirmed-by-xray osteoarthritis in my neck, and would give good odds I've got it mildly elsewhere, including in my knees. But my knees generally feel better. My neck certainly gets more painfull if I don't run for a while. I did go through a stage where my knees started giving me problems, but that turned out to be due to core stability issues: I guess when you are generally as unfit as me to start with then just getting the big muscles fit is not enough to ensure you don't get injuries. I had a prescribed course of core stability classes (mostly pilates) which sorted that out.
I guess my message would be that you might have to put up with slow progress if you have underlying problems, and take extra care if you are generally unfit to start. But I've done 2 marathons and 3 halves and I'm not in that wheelchair!
Talking of rugby and wheelchairs: has anyone seen wheelchair basketball? (Do they call it murder ball or something?) Anyway, I saw a film on it once, and most of the players seemed to be ex rugby players who'd broken their backs and still didn't want to give up rugby!
