Adelaide dad Travis Saunders running 24-hour marathon to raise money for autism Travis Saunders is running in the Adelaide 24 Hour Festival this weekend as part of his bid to run 12 marathons in 12 months to raise money for autism. TRAVIS Saunders will shuffle 160km in 24 hours of pain this weekend to raise awareness that bringing up children with autism is a marathon, not a sprint. Mr Saunders is half way toward his goal of running 12 marathons in 12 months to promote his Run4Autism fundraising website. From 10am tomorrow he will take part in the Adelaide 24 Hour Festival, aiming to run 160km around the Adelaide University Loop circuit in the parklands. The Joslin resident took up running in early 2011 to help cope after his son Patrick, now 4, was diagnosed with autism. "Our little boy made little to no eye contact, didn't talk, and it broke our heart to see him so often overwhelmed by what was happening around him," he says. Since then my partner and I have given up full time work and we're doing therapy with him from the moment he wakes up until he falls asleep to teach him to communicate and relate to the world. It's a difficult life but it's very rewarding when he shows progress. Running was really my way of meditation and stress relief and it has turned into helping autism organisations and families. Early this year Mr Saunders launched Run4Autism, allowing people to raise funds from running events for autism organisations around the country, including Autism SA. About 70 people have signed up to the site and have so far raised $37,000. To promote the site, Mr Saunders decided to run 12 marathons in 12 months and has completed long distance hauls in Hobart, Wangaratta, Canberra, the Blue Mountains, the Barossa Valley and Flinders Ranges. The 24-hour run will be his biggest challenge yet. "I've done a lot of back to back big runs of 40km in the morning and 20km in the afternoon (to train)," he says. This is all about the very slow jog-shuffle. The 40 year old, who has been a teacher for 17 years and now works part-time with children with special needs, aims to launch his own 5km or 10km fundraising event in Adelaide next year. "It's only the beginning and I think after this weekend a lot more people will know about the website," he says. Disabilities Minister Tony Piccolo will join Mr Saunders for a lap or two of the 2.2km University Loop tomorrow lunchtime. Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood will help him complete the race on Sunday morning. There are 35 runners signed up for the 24-hour challenge on the running track between War Memorial Drive and Mackinnon Parade. Dozens more will do 12-hour and 6-hour runs. Details: run4autism.gofundraise.com.au