In the time between these meets, he has had a couple of away meets that we have not attended, but where he has worked on improving his time. Unfortunately, his placement in the races hasn't changed much and he has told us that he doesn't plan on being in track next year. While I try to leave my children's extra-curricular decisions up to them, I think he benefits more from being in track than staying at home and playing computer games (or watching videos of people playing computer games).
Yesterday, I watched him in the 400 as he again started at a lope which kept him near the back of the group until the last 100 or so meters. Only at this point did he turn on the speed and push into the front portion of his heat. A good deal of his energy in the first three-fourths of the race was used up in an inefficient stride that bounced him and up and side to side. When he decided to sprint, however, most of his energy was devoted to moving forward and he did much better.
When he came up to the stands, he asked if I noticed how well he sprinted. I told him that I did and that I believed that if he put that same energy into more of the race that he would do quite a bit better. I suggested that for his shorter event, the 200, that he try sprinting the entire race.
Unfortunately, I was distracted by my texting device for the start of his race (and am mad at myself about that), but he ran a strong second half of his race and got third place, not just in his heat but in the event! He told us that he beat his best time by a lot and was quite a bit happier. When his name was called over the PA to announce his placement, he was beaming with pride.
We will see if he is willing to stay in track another year.