​Every June, mud warriors from all over Southern California gather at Camp Pendleton for the annual Mud Run. Just taking part in the event is a victory. These folks, six months earlier, jammed the official website at 12:01 a.m. on New Year’s Day, vying for a space. By 9:00 a.m., they are all filled.

   ​Like dating, preparation is key to making this mudapalooza a success, and duct tape is the first ingredient. Swathing shoes and ankles in the stuff, one avoids the dreaded “I lost my shoe in the !@#$%& mud” phenomenon.  And who would’ve thunk a little mud would make you want a military man even more…

* There’s the former marine hunched over his girlfriend’s tennis shoes checking the tautness of her duct tape. His baby isn’t going to get mud in her sneakers if he has anything to do with it…

* Along the course, a marine blasts a steep hill with a fire hose. Participants stumble up this slippery mess as the military men yell at them.  But these guys are also the first to hold your
hand if you think you’re going to fall.

​* There is a five foot wall participants are expected to climb. A handsome man in uniform stands in the mud on one knee so you can step on it and climb over easily. (You are so tempted to loop around …)

* Toward the end, it gets quiet and you think the mud portion of the day is over. But boy are you wrong!  You come over an
embankment and blink because you cannot believe your eyes. In front of you is a massive mud sea with banners waving brightly

​a foot above it. At least 50 runners are crawling through the mud keeping their heads below the banners. To your left is a massive grandstand with spectators. Your first response: Are you frickin’ kidding me? A yelling marine assures you he is not kidding, and you join the hoards crawling across.

   For the next couple days you are finding remnants of mud where it should not be, but it’s so worth it…so very worth it. It’s worth
staying up late, jamming the website, all the miles of duct tape, being sprayed by those very handsome marines, and especially the
military families helped by your participation in the event.

     Here are a couple things that keep us dating:

​1.)  Chivalry:

   2.)  Mad kid wrangling skills:

    Yep, those two things DEFINITELY keep us coming back!

   There are definitely benefits in being a spinster...

   You get to go with your parents on their second honeymoon.

   Your friends invite you on their family vacations and you get to relive your childhood sitting with their kids in the back seat. 

    Your widow friends invite you to their Halloween party and you get to have fun and skip the whole becoming-a-widow thing.

   Yep, spinsterhood definitely has its advantages.   But...the right attitude has even more.