Understanding your own skills and ability and knows that you're already above the competition, showing off is meaningless.

• The cheetah has an instinctual thought pattern that helps him decide if the risk of wasting that amount of calories is worth it or not. If he was starving before the race, yes he would out run and try to eat a dog. 

They're lucky that cheetah didn't decide to eat a couple of those dogs. 

The level of retardation people achieve never ceases to amaze me. 

• For me this shows true power. understanding your own skills and ability and knows that you're already above the competition, showing off is meaningless. Self worth is also valuable, will racing with others (dogs) adds up his credibility as a cheetah? remember that cheetahs are not build to race (and maybe they knew that) they use the speed to hunt for survival and that's more sensible than racing for just pride. So, knowing that what's important and understanding your own ability and skills is true power.