Review
It's dusty. It's hot. It's boring. And yet it is home. The Soccer Field, by any logical metric, is not a good loop. The scenery is absolutely atrocious: you are just running around a bunch of Soccer Fields and have your eyes blessed with the sight of some dirt roads surrounding big patches of grass. There is also next to no shade on this loop, which is always a boatload of fun on Tallahassee afternoons. And you are so far out of nature that the scenery is not entertaining in the slightest. This loop is unlike most of the other loops at Phipps Park in its frequency compared to its overall pleasantness.
But the Soccer Field has one quality for which it by and large surpasses every other loop. It is extremely close to the Parking Lot, making it very easy to hit at the end of a run. When you want to run with a friend, but they are doing one mile less than you and you want to stay with them until the very end, then doing a Soccer Field Loop at the very end will allow you to run with them for the maximum possible time. Or if it is on the verge of a thunderstorm outside and you want to stay close to the parking lot in preparation for dangerous conditions, the Soccer Field will ensure that you are never over half a mile away from safety.
Consequently, the Soccer Field is a highly valued loop in spite of its flaws. If you are designing a route in advance and know precisely how you want to run it and you know that everyone in your group will stick to your plan, there is little reason to incorporate it into your route. Instead, the Soccer Field is like a roll of Duct Tape, being attached to any route to fix problems that arise midway.
In this role, the Soccer Field does its job perfectly. Just staying on the dirt roads is a tremendously easy task. The dirt roads are wide and simple, and the route is not particularly long. The Soccer Field is the loop for practicality, not aesthetics.
Rating: Out of 10