Many races locate their water stations at or near a mile split point. The thinking is that runners and volunteers can be told easily where the station will be.

There's a downside, though. With all the commotion and activity at a station, runners may miss the split point, especially if it's only marked on the road. Second, their natural reaction when seeing the split is to look at their watch and hit the split button. The result is usually disasterously wet if they're carrying a cup of water, or worse, GatorAde, in either hand.

Jim,

I have seen this situation far too many times and it can be anywhere from annoying to disastrous.

I would recommend race directors place the water/aid station past the mile/split markers. that way the runners can mark mark their splits on their watches and then move on to the water/aid stations.

Steve