Are water stations useless for 5Ks and 10Ks?

May 18, 2022

After participating in Toronto’s Sporting Life 10K a couple of weeks ago, I was curious to know how many of the top 50 runners grabbed water at 8 km. My friend who was working the water station told me zero–no takers. Obviously, races are required to have water stations, but if the faster runners are not stopping to grab water in a short race, is there any benefit? Canadian Running