Tamika Williams has set herself a goal of running under five minutes in tonight’s KPMG Invitational Elite Women’s Front Street Mile ahead of another challenging two-race weekend.

Williams is aiming to run at least seven seconds faster than her personal best time of five minutes and 6.34 seconds, which came while she was still recovering from a bout of the flu.

After tonight’s effort against four other runners, she will be up early tomorrow to compete again in the 10K, which provides a challenge of its own, as she prefers the shorter-distance races.

“I am historically a middle-distance runner,” Williams said. “Up to 2004, I strictly ran the 800, but I’m trying to teach myself to run longer. I love the fact that we have the Front Street Mile because, other than the Island Games last summer, it is the one time I get to run within the distance that I’m really comfortable.

“I had the flu last year but was hoping to run under five minutes and I’m definitely hoping to that this year.”

Williams was fifth last year in the Mile, which was won in 4:49 by American Heather Kampf on her 26th birthday. Kampf is back to defend her title, while another top-rated American, Sarah Brown, is also returning.

Brown finished second in the Mile and then romped to her first 10K victory the next day.

Williams was second local female finisher behind Rose-Anna Hoey in the 10K, 40th overall in a time of 40:40. Hoey was the local women’s Mile winner last year.

“I’m doing the 10K as a challenge for myself,” Williams said. “Last year it was in preparation for Nacac [Cross-Country] but I haven’t done as much of that type of training this year. I did have a decent cross-country season, so I should be able to dig into that training for the cross-country season.

“I love running the 10K. The energy for the weekend is so amazing that I just want to be a part of that.”

There is another Nacac event next month in Trinidad, but Williams will not be competing.

“I’m going to try to focus more on track this year,” the 35-year-old said. “I felt I had a successful 1,500?metres at the Island Games, so I’m hoping to build on that.

“I’m in the Masters category for track, so that is a new challenge. Before I was the retired track athlete and now there is a possibility of competing in World Championships for Masters. Some people say I’m too old for this, but this is a whole new area for me to explore.”

Williams, a schoolteacher, will have one of her Purvis students, Meron Simons, competing in the Primary Girls race tonight.

“She’s going to be running in the Mile, but unfortunately two other girls just missed the [qualifying] cut-off,” Williams said.

“The Primary School Girls is quite competitive this year, even more so than last year. Meron trained a little bit with me over the Christmas break and I totally believe she is a runner for the future.

“She doesn’t belong to a track team at the moment, but she loves to run and has come out to quite a few of the cross-country events and runs quite comfortably when she runs distance.”