ST. PAUL — The lead runner was bent slightly forward at the waist, arms and legs pumping, working the pavement like a machine. His gait was inelegant, but in the time it took spectators to think, “Where is everybody else?” the runner had passed. There was no grimacing battle down the stretch between sweat-soaked thoroughbreds, no fleet-footed challenger quietly gaining ground.

It was Oct. 6, 1985, and the runner was Phil Coppess, a 31-year-old from Clinton, Iowa, on his way to setting the course record at the Twin Cities Marathon with a time of 2 hours 10 minutes 5 seconds. The second-place finisher was three minutes behind. Coppess’s time was the fastest by an American that year, and it ranks Coppess among the top 20 American marathoners ever, just ahead of Frank Shorter.

Like all marathons, the Twin Cities race has hosted increasingly international elite fields, with strong contingents of East Africans and Russians. But 27 years later, Coppess’s record still stands — a fact that is all the more remarkable considering Coppess was a single parent of three who had worked full time in a factory since he was 18.

Today’s marathoning elites are full-time professionals supported by coaches, agents, corporate sponsors, physiotherapists, massage specialists and nutritionists. That was not Coppess’s arrangement.