we try to avoid using a mutex unless absolutely necessary. If this is absolutely necessary we need to be overly cautious to make sure the mutex is always released, especially since the kubernetes library could be subject to panics (not sure, but we definitely don't want to risk it) here is an example: https://github.com/drone/runner-go/blob/df14cddb19a2f9398473bfdc78e7294e227afb2a/client/single.go#L39:L50

mutex does not need to be a pointer

mutex does not need to be instantiated

```suggestion // chance of a self-inflicted concurrent modification error ```