For the first time in more than a decade Bermuda Marathon Weekend will be without one of the Island’s top female runners.Veteran campaigner Victoria Fiddick has unselfishly put her own career on hold to travel overseas to support son Daniel who is competing for Bermuda’s national youth volleyball team overseas this weekend.“I have never seen him play overseas and so I am taking this opportunity to go and see him play,” she said. “It’s really too bad it’s the same weekend because I would’ve taken part.”Fiddick underwent knee surgery last October and even though she has made considerable progress has yet to fully recover, something that also factored in her decision not to run this year.“It’s such a fun event, but when I made the decision my running wasn’t at all there and I knew I was going to struggle in each event,” she said. “I figured why put myself through this.“I had a meniscus tear a couple of years ago and I have been able to run on it even though I have been in pain for the whole time on and off.“I have been restricted in my training too but been able to push through. After the Partner Re race it got really bad and progressively it got to the point where I couldn’t run so the doctor said ‘let’s open up and see what’s what’. So he cleaned up my meniscus.“With some time off from running it really put me back quite a bit even though I was able to get on the bike a bit and try some water running, which just doesn’t work because you need to run if you are going to run.”Fiddick, who has finished runner up in the Women’s Mile on multiple occasions, has also been hindered by inflammation in her Achilles tendon.“I have been plagued with this inflammation in my heel that has been actually more debilitating than my knee,” she said. “I was actually pretty lucky because after two weeks (after knee surgery) I could run really gently on my knee and it’s been holding out since. But it’s my heel ... I’ve had this chronic inflammation in one of my Achilles tendons and that’s been stopping me from training.”Fiddick placed fourth among the women’s field in last weekend’s Fairmont to Fairmont Race but was far from satisfied with her display.“This year hasn’t been that great and last week I had a super bad cold and tried to race with no back up training, which was a disaster,” she lamented.Even though she has been dogged with injury Fiddick believes she is still capable of achieving faster times, something which speaks volumes about her will to maintain high standards.“I think the most frustrating thing for me this year is my times are so much slower than they were a year prior,” she said. “I have slowed down and that’s frustrating because I know I can run a better race.“I have no problem when I run my 1:25:00 1:26:00 for the Half Marathon and someone comes and beats me and runs a 1:21:00 then I at least know I have done the best I can do.“But when I get beat in 1:30:00 when I have run a 1:24:00 some months before then that’s frustrating because I am capable of a faster time.”