"Let's be real"

People dislike sitting through actual story cutscenes, I can imagine the complaints if some people had to run that distance. The zoning isnt that breaking, and makes transitioning for the programmers a bit easier I imagine. I would be careful what you wish for in all honesty. Instead of making you sprint that distance, they would most likely move the castle closer, which would remove your 'amazing sprint' and leave you with a much smaller impression of scale.