As a both a runner and a developer, I find this quite funny and a bit wrong. The fact that we call them sprints can be a bit wrong or confusing if you put them in a different context, but what I can say is that almost every serious runner will constantly check their laps, be it miles, be it km, you will always look at your watch to see how you performed in your last km and if you are on track.
That's what I see useful in sprints, the fact that you stop for a bit and see where you are, you have the time to discuss things that might have gone wrong and try to fix them before it gets out of hand. But in the end I can understand people who dislike the system, because I've worked with a lot of managers with no technical knowledge trying to manage technical projects.
