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Greg Bennett and wife Laura Bennett were riding high in 2007 when he scored a perfect 5-for5 wins in the Life Time Fitness Olympic distance series and won $500,000 in prize money and bonuses. That same year, Laura won $200,000 at the inaugural Hy-Vee triathlon and also took home a sponsor’s Hummer. Being intelligent, family-oriented types, they didn’t blow all their prize money on fancy clothes and buying drinks for all the swells in all the usual watering holes. Instead, they built a beautiful house in Boulder’s gorgeous Wonderland Lake area and went about their business.

In Laura’s case, that meant making her first Olympic team and making creative training choices to sidestep a malfunctioning leg and take home a top American 4th place at Beijing. In Greg’s case, that meant overcoming an early season slip to take his third straight Life Time Fitness series crown and beginning to build their coaching business, starting with a strong 8th place finish at Ironman Hawaii for budding Swiss star Matthias Hecht under Bennett’s direction.

In 2009, Laura has spent the better part of the year getting her pre-Beijing injuries in line. Greg himself was out of action with leg troubles until July when he opened up with a cautious third place at Minneapolis and took a strong win at New York in the second round of the Life Time Series. But Greg’s year took a turn for the worse when he got hit by a daydreaming driver just a mile from home after an exhilarating 55-mile training ride up Boulder’s mountains.

A busted nose, cut and bruises on his leg and a badly twisted shoulder put Bennett back on a long road to recovery. Five weeks after the hit, Bennett was able to swim and bike and run again, aided by an intense regimen of recovery.

Photo gallery by Timothy Carlson