We like to feel we can overcome our fate with hard work.
We want to be like the guy in Gattaca who had inferior genes but with dedication fooled everyone and competed with those with better dna.
If we have success by hard work we think we somehow earned it as opposed to being more talented by birth.
After the race Flanagan was saying she was pleased that she could say she gave it her all and she left it all on the course. She also consolded herself by saying that Linden was built for the course and that it isn't a matter of trying hard in conditions like those who ran on Monday faced. You either have the ability to deal with those conditions or you don't. It was out of Flanagan's hands. She felt unsatisfied with the results because she feels she wasn't built for those conditions. If the conditions were different, her own hard work would have paid off.