Cory is an overweight, shy young high-school student, who spends all his spare time playing CounterStrike on the computer. Concerned about Cory's weight and his isolation, his mum finally gives him an ultimatum: join a school sports team or broadband will be cancelled. Realizing that for once he cannot get his own way, Cory surfs the net to research the sports options on offer. Orienteering, he reads, can be "like a stroll in the park" - Cory's idea of adequate exercise. Match! But when Cory joins the school orienteering club, he finds quite a bit more than strolling is required. Competing alone in the back of beyond, Cory discovers he needs to learn to work with Nature if he is to win ...and indeed survive. So he harnesses all of his CounterStrike experience to become a "cunning runner" and try to finish the race against the odds. The title refers to the two vital pieces of information the orienteer needs to know: which way is North, and which way is up, something Cory has to learn in every sense of the word.