By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
(28-May) — In the sixth kilometer of last December’s USATF Cross Country Championships in Portland, Ore., Katie Izzo and Weini Kelati broke away from the field. Kelati, an Olympian and national record holder who had already won multiple national titles, eventually surged away from Izzo to take the win as expected. But behind her, Izzo was having the race of her life. Running alone, she finished second and qualified for Team USATF for the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee. It was her first-ever podium finish at a national championships, and it had been a long time coming for the 29 year-old former Arkansas Razorback.
“It kind of goes back to about a year ago when things started clicking, just being more used to altitude,” Izzo told Race Results Weekly in a telephone interview yesterday from her home in Flagstaff where she trains with the Golden Peaks Track Club. “Obviously, the breakthrough so far has been the U.S. Cross Country Championships. After that, it was always a level I knew I could get to as a pro, but… it’s hard to have everything click. So once I finally got that result on paper to show that I could compete with the best in the U.S., I think that just finally gave me the last bit of confidence where what I did in that race, where I just went for it, I want to continue to do that in all my races.”
That performance kicked off an excellent series of performances in 2026 for Izzo, whose collegiate career was interrupted by the COVID shutdown in 2020. She’s raced six times so far this year with three top-five finishes. That included her 24th place finish (third American) at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, a personal best 31:27 for 10-K at the Cooper River Bridge Run (second place), and a 15:10.75 indoor personal best for 5000m. In April she stretched herself by running the USATF 10-Mile Championships at the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile in Washington, D.C., and the highly-competitive Boston 5-K just six days apart. She ran 52:00 for the 10-mile (10th place), and 15:33 for the 5-K where she missed second place by just a fraction of a second in a sprint finish.
“I just always want to be the person who is fearless,” Izzo continued. “I’m still figuring that out on the track, but it’s been really fun to especially do that on the roads, lately.”
Izzo is taking that confidence into Saturday’s Delightful Run for Woman in Albany, N.Y., one of America’s most storied 5-K road races won by past stars like Lynn Jennings, Marla Runyan, and Libbie Hickman. She’s running at the Delightful Run for the first time, and hopes to compete well. She’s not focused on her time, she said.
“I’d say more it’s just about competing,” Izzo explained. “Like I said, just going for the win and practicing that. I feel like the time will be whatever it is. Of course, I always like to run fast, but I’d be good just with the win and, honestly, just thinking about it as a workout and get the most out of myself.” She added: “That’s the goal; just going for it.”
Izzo’s 2026 season nearly got derailed before it started. She contracted a staph infection in her ankle at last December’s national cross country championships and was still getting treatment in the days before the World Championships.
“I tried not to vocalize it too much because I was just trying to get healthy after U.S. Cross, but I actually got a staph infection in my ankle after U.S. Cross,” Izzo revealed. “It actually got really nasty where I had to alter training. It was so infected I had to get it drained, and it was super-painful. I had to miss some workouts and cross-train it. On top of that, I was on antibiotics to clear the thing out. I was worried that I wouldn’t even get to the starting line.”
The meet organizers in Tallahassee created a water obstacle on the course and dyed the water blue. Izzo was concerned that multiple dips in the water might reignite her infection.
“I knew there was going to be a water pit, and I’m like if this gets into the water pit that would be so not good,” Izzo recalled. “There’s a story for every result, and I think by the time I got to the starting line I was pretty wiped out just from my body dealing with that infection. The heat probably didn’t help.”
Izzo, who is sponsored by adidas, is coached by Terrence Mahon and his wife, Jen Rhines. Her club used to be called the Golden Coast Track Club because the team was located in San Diego, but they changed their name when Mahon, Rhines and Izzo all relocated to Flagstaff. Izzo was the only athlete who followed Mahon and Rhines from San Diego, and the club had to be completely reconstituted.
On May 7, the Golden Peaks name became official and the team consists of five athletes: Izzo, Olivia Howell, Taryn Parks, Ellie Baker, and Alex Carlson. All are sponsored by adidas, except for Baker who is British and is with New Balance. Izzo said that it’s her best-ever training group and one of the keys to her success.
“It slowly became a reality about a year ago,” Izzo said of rebuilding the club. “I was the only one on the team. I didn’t know what I was going to do. My other teammates had left, and it was just me, Terrence and Jen out here. But little by little the pieces just fell together. My first teammate Olivia joined about a year ago, and this fall got Alex Carlson, Taryn Parks and Ellie Baker. They’re all like middle distance, 800/1500, so they keep me speedy. They drop me like a bad habit when we do 150 meters, but I think I help them with the longer stuff.”
More importantly, Izzo said, is the group vibe.
“They’re all just super-sweet girls,” she said. “We definitely just get along great. They’re just fun to be around, and I think that has also helped my training a lot because the environment is so great. We just feed off each other, and it’s enjoyable to go to practice. We definitely want to make sure that’s the way the team always stays.”
The Delightful Run, which had 1733 finishers last year, is a lot like a cross country race. The middle section in Washington Park features several choppy hills, and that’s just fine with Izzo who took third at the 2019 NCAA Cross Country Championships and helped the Razorbacks win their first-ever NCAA cross country team title.
“I’m really excited to race,” said Izzo. “I’ve been watching everyone race on the track and I’m just dying to race myself. I have obviously been enjoying the roads and it’s been a breath of fresh air doing new races and different distances.” She continued: “It just sounded like a fun one to do. I feel like women’s-only races are always fun. Like, I’ve enjoyed the 6-K road champs (in Canton, Ohio). Based off of how the B.A.A. 5-K went it just seemed like a new, fun and exciting one to do.”
Izzo has the best credentials of any of the elites entered in the race. Her main opponents will be Anne-Marie Given (née Blaney) and Caroline Garrett of the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project, Canadian Cleo Boyd, and veteran marathoner Steph Bruce. Last year’s champion, Molly Born, who ran 15:31 in a lashing rain, is not competing this year.
Izzo hopes that a good run in Albany will set her up nicely for the Toyota USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships in New York City in late July where she expects to compete in the 10,000m (although the 5000m is still a possibility). The Delightful race will give her a lower-pressure race to work on both her racing skills and her fitness.
“I haven’t won a race since (last) Fourth of July, so I really want to practice winning,” Izzo said. “That’s kind of another reason I want to do it. I just really want to put myself in position to win.”
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The Delightful Run for Women was founded in 1979 as the Freihofer’s Run For Life with financial support from the Freihofer’s Baking Company, famous for their chocolate chip cookies. It later became the Freihofer’s Run for Women, and hosted national championships at both 10-K and 5-K. The race was rebranded as the Delightful Run for Women in 2024 when Sara Lee Delightful Bread took over as title sponsor (Delightful is a sister brand of Freihofer’s). The race will be contested on a new, USATF-certified and record-eligible course.
PHOTO: Katie Izzo finishing third at the 2026 Boston 5-K on April 18 (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)
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