Last week, I finished my training cycle and my marathon. I ran it with a long-time friend, and it was one of those days you’re grateful for. Weeks of work, long runs—all of it leading to a few hours on the course.

On the plane ride home, I thought about a completely different place—the Atlanta Botanical Garden. There are a lot of great sections, but I always end up in the indoor exhibit—the Orchid House. Orchids are one of the largest plant families in the world, with more than 25,000 species.

We have two orchids at home. Maybe you do too. If you’ve had one long enough, you’ve seen how it works. It blooms. Looks incredible. Then the petals fall off, and it just sits there. Green leaves. Bare stem. It looks like it died. It stays that way for what feels like way too long. Then one day, it comes back.

The bloom isn’t the full story. Just like the race isn’t the marathon.

When the flowers fall off, that’s when the real work begins. The plant is still alive. Still building. Pulling in what it needs. Storing energy. Getting ready for the next bloom. It just doesn’t look like it.

The race was fantastic. Seeing my friend. The crowds. The energy. That part is easy to love. But the real story was the 18 weeks before it. The good days first—the ones where everything felt easy, where the pace clicked, where I started to believe something was happening. Then the other days. The flat runs. The workouts that didn’t hit. The morning stiffness. The days where I questioned if any of it was working at all.

That’s the part no one sees. But it’s the part that matters. The work. 

The bloom is short. The work is everything else.

Happy running!