Is motivate an acceptable topic to discuss? I personally don't think KQ'ing or winning for the sake of winning was the goal for cutting the course. I think she was a top performer in the past which earned her an admirable following. And once your performance starts to fade, she probably didn't want to disappoint all of those who held her in such high esteem, so she cut the course, not to win for herself, but to win to not disappoint everyone who "expected" her to win.

In my opinion, that's a pretty likely motive. The shame of disappointing those who care so much about you would be a pretty rough thing to deal with. I'll have a similar situation in a few weeks in Tahoe. My parents are driving 2000 miles to watch me race, and as much as I want to win, I don't want to disappoint them. Obviously I'm not going to cheat to do it, and whatever happens that day happens, but I know I'll be thinking about them when shit gets real during the marathon.

Not to derail, but I think there's a psychological side to racing that a lot of people don't talk about. Physically, racing is very demanding, but it's also equally psychologically demanding as well.