Jennifer Salamon started to notice the changes in her son, Roman, beginning when he was just 18 months old.

“He went from being a totally typical 18-month-old to not saying the words he was saying and not making eye contact the way that he was,” the 32-year-old Shaler resident said.

At 2 years old, Jennifer and Mike Salamons' only child was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, or pervasive developmental disorder — not otherwise specified. But five minutes was all that a doctor from the Children's Institute needed to diagnose Roman with autism.

That was two years ago.

Roman is now 6, and keeping up with his boundless energy inspired Jennifer to start running last summer. Her husband followed suit over the winter, and this weekend the whole family will be involved with the Pittsburgh Marathon. Roman will be the one with the bib on Saturday, running in the Kids' Marathon one-mile race along with his parents, aunt and cousins.

Then on Sunday, Mike, Jennifer and three of her co-workers will make up the relay team of Running for Roman, raising money for the Organization for Autism Research as part of the marathon's Running for a Reason charity program. Their goal is to raise $750.

“A lot of the charities focus on let's find a cure, and that's important, but this is more for if you have autism, helping you deal with it a little better,” she said. “Even though he's only 6 now, it's nice to know there's someone out there working to get him a job and a place to live, if he's able to do that once he's out of high school.”

Roman is nonverbal but not the least bit shy around strangers. He'll jump on the arm of a couch to bring himself face-to-face with you, put his hands on your shoulders and give you a sly smile before he's off and running again, bouncing around the living room to a children's program on TV. A minute later he's back on the couch investigating the new person some more, but as quickly as you can say hello, he's gone again.

“There's really no downtime with him,” Jennifer said. “You're going, you're going, and then he drops at bedtime.”

It's no wonder why Jennifer thought she needed to get in better shape in order to keep up with him.

Salamon began running last June in order to prepare for the Great Race. She did another race a few weeks later, and when 2012 rolled around she made it her New Year's resolution to do one race per month for the entire year, and got her husband involved, too, even if it was somewhat reluctantly.

“I'm starting to get into it because my times are getting better,” said Mike, 42. “My goal the first race was just to finish, though, because I haven't run since I was in the Army 15 years ago.”

Roman has never run in an organized race before, but the family has done fun walks for Autism Speaks and they routinely journey around the neighborhood. Jennifer thinks that with all the other kids around, he'll probably start out sprinting before finishing in a walk.

“He's very active and wants to be outside all the time,” she said. “We always joke that when he's in high school he's going to be on the cross country team and do track and field because he's just always moving.”

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