Joe Kraus competed in the Wilkes-Barre Triathlon seven or eight times.
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On Aug. 20, 2023, the Back Mt. Triathlon will bring triathlon back to Harveys Lake and the Back Mountain community in Northeast PA for the first time since 2016. More than 300 triathletes are expected; first-timers and relay teams are welcome. The race will start with a 1,500-meter swim in Harveys Lake, include a 24-mile bike course through the rolling hills of Harveys Lake and Noxen, and finish with a challenging run course on a mix of paved roads, and shaded dirt roads. The triathlon recently received their special event permit from PennDOT, the last major hurdle of the permitting process.
As we have seen from our extended series on local athletes, triathletes are incredible people. But don’t be intimidated. They are also often ordinary athletes just like us. Joe Kraus is a professor at the University of Scranton where he is the chair of the Department of English & Theatre and teaches classes in American literature and creative writing. By definition Joe is a true academic, having spent nearly his entire life on college campuses. His father was an English professor at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and Joe knew from an early age he wanted to be a teacher. Watching his father work with students in their home, critiquing their creative writing in a group setting, let him feel a part of teaching even before he’d graduated.
Joe left Ohio for the University of Michigan. Later he did his Ph. D. at Northwestern University where he met his wife Paula Chaiken in the library at the Spertus Institute. Today Paula and Joe have three sons – Richie, Max and Teddy – and they reside in Shavertown. Richie works at WBRE as a digital producer. Max is a computer science major at Penn State University. And Teddy pitches for Wyoming Seminary.
Growing up the young Kraus was a wrestler, “more passionate than good” at the sport. As college transitioned to graduate school and later Joe’s first job, wrestling didn’t work well as an adult activity. Running filled that void. First running on a treadmill at the college where he worked and later taking it to the streets. Kraus just loves to run. Sometimes he drops off his car at Kost Tire in Kingston and runs home up the Back Mountain Trail. Sometimes he even runs back the next day to pick it up. He often works out scenes and details from his writing while he is on a long run, enjoying the solitude and the focus that running brings.
Joe found running to be the most efficient of sports. You could slip into a pair of Hokas and run right out the door. In Kingston, the levee was just steps away, and with young kids at home, Kraus could get a lot done in a short time. Eventually Joe decided to test himself in a local 5K. And eventually the challenge of triathlon lured him in. “It’s the Olympics for some of us middle-aged guys. It feels important enough to build a summer of training around it.”
The Kraus/Chaiken family came to the area from Chicago in 2001 and set up house in Kingston. Nine years ago they made the move to the Back Mountain.
Joe did the former Wilkes Barre Triathlon between seven and eight times, and he is hoping to complete the Back Mountain Triathlon this August. His neighbor Chris Hackett once gave Joe a critical piece of advice, one that I heard myself when I was a new triathlete – “Swim to the V. Then turn around and swim back to the flag.” If you have raced at Harveys Lake before you probably know what that means. Since the swim course at the new race will be the same, this is still the best advice for a triathlete new to Harveys Lake. The “V” is the notch in the mountains, providing a distant point to sight off when you lift your head from your freestyle stroke.
Kraus has published two books, most recently “The Kosher Capones,” and he has published several short stories, creative essays and academic articles.
Published in 2019, “The Kosher Capones” tells the story of the Jewish wing of the Chicago Mafia from the Capone era and its heyday during Prohibition, up to its demise in the latter half of the 20th Century. Kraus insists that the book took him 30 years to complete, so he really is no stranger to endurance events. His brother calls him Endurance Man. At 58 years old he is still going strong, working on another novel and another triathlon this summer.
When asked why triathlon is so important to him, Kraus talked a lot about people, about being a part of something bigger, about doing it with friends and family. That can mean the conversation with a stranger on the bus over to the swim start – which is how he and I first met – or it can mean standing at the finish line with family, beaming with pride and then hugging a total stranger. Triathlon is all of that to him.
I hadn’t asked any previous athletes but I was tempted to ask Dr. Kraus was who his favorite author was. He thought for a few seconds and then recommended Canadian writer Mordecai Richler and his novel Solomon Gursky was Here. One of the often-quoted lines from the book is, “It seems to me that our lives are consumed by countless wasting years, but only a few shining moments. I missed mine. Yes is what I should have said. Of course I should have said yes.” Joe Kraus did say ‘yes.’ He said ‘yes’ at least seven times at the Wilkes Barre Triathlon. He said ‘yes’ to those few shining moments, and he said ‘yes’ again when given the chance to race in the Back Mountain Triathlon.