Michael McGovern calls the 400-meter run a “gut check.” 

The longest sprinting event in track and field, it requires possession of both speed and endurance. Mental fortitude helps, too.

McGovern, the head track and field coach at Mountain Brook High School, knows a runner with more guts than most. 

Holli Chapman stands only a couple of inches taller than 5 feet and, in most races, is the only competitor sporting glasses. Her unassuming aura abides until the gun sounds. 

Then, she’s lethal. 

“If you look at her, you wouldn’t think she’s the most athletic or the toughest, but that tiny little body has a huge heart in it,” McGovern said, “and she’s willing to outwork anybody.” 

Chapman, a senior, is a linchpin for the Spartans girls track and field team and has been since the eighth grade. Three times she’s finished as a 400-meter state runner-up, including at the Class 7A indoor meet in February.

Her performance helped spur Mountain Brook to its first team title since 2013. In May, the Spartans will look to contend again at the state outdoor meet. 

Chapman will play a key role. 

“For us to be successful, we need a Holli-type athlete to fill those holes in events we normally don’t score,” McGovern said. “She’s able to do things in sprints and jumps that, traditionally, we don’t always have that type of athlete.”

Chapman contributes to multiple Mountain Brook relays, including the 4x100 and 4x400, and also competes in the long jump. 

But the open 400 is her signature race. She knew she had a promising future at the distance when she broke the elusive 1-minute mark as a freshman. 

“It was just so clear that that was what I was going to do and that was what I was going to be really good at,” Chapman said. 

She never looked back. 

Chapman reached the podium at the state outdoor meet her sophomore year. She placed second to Oak Mountain’s Nicole Payne, who also was a sophomore at the time.

The two have raced throughout high school and have set the bar for Alabama’s quarter-milers.

“Now people know who she is when she’s on the track, and she's learned to deal with that,” McGovern said of Chapman. “Sometimes that’s a hard thing to do.”

Chapman broke her own indoor school record this winter, running 56.86 seconds at the state indoor meet. She’s been chasing Mountain Brook’s outdoor record, 55.98, this spring. 

Chapman came close to the mark at the 2017 Mountain Brook Invitational, when her teammates swarmed her on the Spartan Stadium infield after she clocked 56.15. 

In the right race and under the right conditions, McGovern believes that Chapman is capable of etching her name in the history books once again. 

Chapman does too, and she’s been preparing accordingly. She trains alongside the boys at practice, logging 500-meter repeats one after another.

The intervals build the strength and stamina that will allow Chapman — who plans to run at the U.S. Military Academy — to execute a race strategy of microcosmic magnitude. As her high school career winds down, she's focused on the finish.

“Toward the end,” Chapman said, “just give it everything you’ve got.”