The South by Southwest of the Northeast. That’s how I once heard Propeller Festival, New Jersey’s first technology and media festival, described. The inaugural Propeller Festival took place this past Friday on Hoboken’s Pier A Park, a perfect setting for a beautiful day in the sun. With a few minor setbacks, the festival was a huge success and I can’t wait to see what they do next year. Here are some of my observations about the day and what I hope to see next year.

Superbowl Sunday. While most people are just waking up and beginning to think about making wings or what commercials they want to watch out for, the crazy runners in New York are up running a four mile course of Central Park. During the meeting of Peyton (Bud Light lover) Manning and Cam (I’m going to hide under a towel until everyone goes away) Newton at Super Bowl 50, I joined these crazies around the park.

The East Village of New York is rapidly becoming nirvana for great food, especially international. The Filipino, Mexican, Indian, Japanese, and even Ethiopian options here are top notch. In fact there are so many great options these days, that you can spend a full day sampling just on St. Marks between 1st and 3rd Avenues and only hit a small portion of them. Here are the highlights that should be on your bucket list.

This year marked the first ever extension of the ever increasingly popular Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon series into the New York region, specifically around Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. After a night of rain and cold temperatures, Saturday ended up being perfect for a race with temperatures in the mid 60s and sunny skies. Read on for my impressions of the race and the series in general. I’ll also be running the Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll half at the end of the month, and after such a great day, can’t wait for it.

Two weeks ago, I ran the Fred Lebow half marathon in Central Park. I had been freaking out about the cold temperature as I hadn’t done much outdoor running this winter so far. Luckily, the sun came out and for the first time in seemingly weeks, the temperature was above freezing. It was actually rather perfect weather, though I did get a bit sniffly. I’m not sure why I keep running in Central Park.