11th Hour Racing's Paul Vidal

Runner/Business Owner/Philanthropist

Paul Vidal taking in a run along the Manayunk Canal Towpath

By Nicholas Malfitano

An avid runner and dedicated philanthropist, Paul Vidal is a familiar face to both local runners and running-based charities. 

Paul resides in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia with his wife Natacha and their children.

“We’ve been living in Philadelphia for about 7 years now,” Paul said. “We first moved into Center City, then South Philly and now Manayunk. We moved from France and I moved for my work.”

A sales director for a technology company, Paul explained Natacha was a physical therapist in France who worked with athletes and other patients.

After later moving with Paul to the U.S., Natacha acquired her professional license and the couple began their business in earnest in 2010. The business, PhilaMassages, has two locations – one in Rittenhouse Square and the other which recently opened in Manayunk.

Paul explained that massage and stretching helps with circulation and therefore, race recovery.

“Anybody on our staff is very competent and we've spent a lot of time training them. They go through a training period before even starting. That's super-important. There's no one better than us at sports massage in Philly. What we do well, we do it the best,” Paul said.

Paul also recalled the time when he initially became a runner, which also served as the first occasion he became involved with Philadelphia’s running community.

“I remember somebody asked me if I wanted to be part of a race for Back On My Feet, In24,” Paul said. 

In its most difficult of five iterations, the race is a 24 hour-long endurance event which tests its participants by challenging them to complete as many loops as possible of the 8.4-mile distance from the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Fairmount Park to the Falls Bridge in East Falls, encompassing both Kelly Drive and Martin Luther King Drive – a route commonly known among Philadelphia runners as “The River Loop”.

“[The organizers] said we should go and bring our [massage] table, people will appreciate it and it will give you a bit of publicity,” Paul said. “I had never really run in my life before except on treadmills, and I did three loops that day. From there, I started reaching out to the [running] community.”

Paul & Natacha Vidal's business, PhilaMassages, generously supports several running-based charitable organizations in the Philadelphia area

Paul said he contacted the retail store Philadelphia Runner and trained with Team Philly, before registering for and participating in the Harrisburg Marathon in 2010. With humor and a generous amount of self-deprecating humility, Paul remembered his first experience running a marathon.

“I made every rookie mistake you can think of: I messed up the nutrition, I went out too fast and I paid the price. I had gastric problems at Mile 20 and it was the most exposed [route section] of all the race, where everyone could see everything,” Paul laughed.

Paul added he increased his training efforts for the Ocean Drive Marathon, held in Cape May, N.J., in 2011. His hard work paid off, as he completed the race in a breezy 2:59:55, but he was soon sidelined by a pair of stress fractures.

After recovering from his injuries and putting in more hours of training over the next few years, Paul succeeded in PR’ing at the Philadelphia Marathon a few weeks ago, putting down an impressive time of 2:53:52. With running having become “a part of his life”, he hopes to break 2:50:00 for a marathon at some point. 

In addition to road running, Paul loves trail running and counts the half-marathon as his favorite distance. The dedicated runner is also putting in more time to increase his speed in the 5K, from its current mark of just over 17:00. 

But Paul remains humble and self-effacing about his running prowess, calling the opportunity to participate in the sport “a privilege.”

“I don’t like to talk about my speed much,” he explained.

  

An avid runner, Paul completed the Rocky Run 10K in 2014 among many other races.

Paul turned the conversation to PhilaMassages’ efforts to help the local community.

“We focus on runners and other athletes. We love to help out 11th Hour Racing, we’ve worked with Back On My Feet, we’ve worked with Students Run Philly Style,” Paul said. “We try to give back as much as we can. Within the company, we are extremely inclusive and we try to be as fair as possible, all the while maintaining something that is affordable for people to come in on a regular basis.”

“Ultimately, the people that you meet in the running community, running is very easily unifying. You see that at 11th Hour Racing, it’s a great way to bring people together,” Paul continued.

Paul commented how much he enjoyed running with the Back On My Feet crew, whose mission is to assist the homeless community of Philadelphia, and that it was also great to have the assistance of local runner David April and the club he founded, the Fishtown Beer Runners, whose support Paul called “amazing.”

As for 11th Hour Racing, Paul explained that connection began with a telephone call in the summer of 2015 from group founder and fellow runner Mike Rowe.

“He gave me a call when I was running. We talked a little bit and he told me what they were trying to do. Of course, I was happy to help him. We’ve been working with them since then,” Paul remembered.

As far as a defining factor that inspired Paul to lend his assistance to 11th Hour Racing, Paul said it “came down to the people.”

“The conviction that I saw and the energy that I saw in the group itself, the consistency and reliability was definitely a factor,” Paul said, who concluded he was amazed by the work the group does.

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