Tina Schindler has two rules for her Cascade Lakes Relay team: Have fun, and don’t die.

The former is taken more literally than the latter. Yes, a 216-mile relay race starting Friday at Diamond Lake and finishing Saturday in Bend is difficult, but your life is not likely to be in danger.

You are, however, likely to have fun, even if it hurts.

Schindler’s team — The Cracked Dozen — exemplifies that mindset. It is one of 165 teams that participated in the running relay division of the 11th annual race, and although it finished 127th overall in that category, Schindler said her team’s focus was on the journey rather than the destination.

“If we’re not having fun, we’re all miserable,” she said. “Nobody wants to be miserable. This is hard enough as it is.”

There was no sign of misery at the finish line on a clear, 75-degree day along the Deschutes River. Dozens of vans, sporting outlandish decorations and painted messages on the windows, filled the parking lot across the street from Riverbend Park.

The sounds of cheers and music led spectators and runners toward the festivities.

Near the entrance to the finish area, a giant, makeshift Trojan horse adorned with speakers sat on top of a dim gray van. The structure was big enough to hold an entire team of runners, who were furiously dancing to “Everytime We Touch” by Cascada. It was completely insane. And yet, it made perfect sense.

Competing music echoed from the center of the event, where thousands of runners sat at shaded tables with their families, friends and dogs. The mass of people kept growing, too, as more teams crossed the finish line before grabbing a teal finishers T-Shirt, an ice cream sandwich and a beer.

The Cracked Dozen finished its journey in 34 hours, 43 minutes and 9.9 seconds with small, inflatable unicorns in hand. This was Schindler’s and her sister Heidi’s 10th year completing the challenging trek, and it was Heidi Schindler’s ninth consecutive year competing on a handcycle. A snowboarding accident in 2010 left Heidi paralyzed from the waist down, but she has found a way to keep racing in the Cascade Lakes Relay with her sister year after year.

“Everybody has been very nice, understanding and welcoming of me being on a handcycle,” Heidi, 35, explained. “I’m kind of the odd man out in that way, but they’ve embraced me.

“I just want other people to see that just because you can’t run, doesn’t mean you can’t participate.”

Heidi ran once in the Cascade Lakes Relay before her accident. During the first few days of her recovery, she expressed her doubts to Tina about ever participating in the race again. They were the athletes of the family, and the idea of not competing together was discouraging.

The Schindler sisters contacted CLR race director Scott Douglass and worked out a way for Heidi to handcycle her portions of the race. It took a physical and mental toll at first — and Heidi got stuck on a gravelly trail during her first race on the handcycle — but after a few years, she became one of the anchors of her team.

“She’s really been an inspiration to our team and to other teams,” Tina, 38, said of her sister. “The Cascade Lakes Relay is so community oriented. It’s still competitive, but you don’t feel it. It’s like family.”

Heidi’s perseverance inspired other handcyclists to join the race this year, a development that Heidi said motivates her to “step her game up” now that she is not the only one. She and her sister were not the only Schindlers in this year’s race, either. Their father, John, joined the Cracked Dozen and ran in the relay for the first time at age 63.

While Tina lives in Keizer and Heidi in Silverton, the familylike atmosphere at the relay — and, for Tina and John, the Bend Beer Chase — draws them back to Central Oregon every summer. Looking around the area near the finish line, it was hard to imagine a better example of Bend sports culture. A massive crowd of athletic types in quirky outfits with a beer in one hand and their dog’s leash in the other? That’s Bend.

— Reporter: 541-383-0307, rclarke@bendbulletin.com