Thanks for playing! You can definitely go really fast later on, or if you crank up that game speed setting at the beginning.
The sprint is less intense than other games because it doesn't require stamina, and is more a psychological thing to make you feel like you're moving faster. It can feel better if you set Shift Run to OFF, so you're always running when not performing an action.
The weird vertical part of the camera movement is an intentional thing to make it feel more like the z-axis isn't a "real" thing in the game, like a vertical aim DOOM mod.