Quickly heading in the right direction

If you compete in her sport, you’re guaranteed to have at least one story about being hopelessly lost in the woods. Or 10. Hers came five or six years ago.

A frantic search for a checkpoint that day went completely awry. Everything she did to find it sent her past the same trees over and over for 45 interminable minutes. When she finally found it, she was so relieved that she headed off to find the next waypoint with a jump in her step. Only to get terribly lost again. “I was out there for so long,” Emma Waddington laughs.

You don’t get to be one of Canada’s top orienteers without a few hiccups along the way. Or without a unique launching pad into the unusual sport.

Waddington’s dad — Mike, who is a hydrology professor at McMaster University — has been one of the top-ranked racers in North America for years. His parents got him into the game after they’d been living in Norway for a while. Naturally he’d pass that interest along to his kid. Or try to.

So she’d been dragged out to a few races as a girl but never really found much there to love. Until dad took the family to Sweden during a three-month sabbatical when she was eight and she found a kids’ club. It’s a big deal over there and it made sense she’d become involved. Honestly, she quite liked it.

Yet when they got home, it was put aside again. Nobody around here did it. Certainly none of her friends. Best she could tell, nobody her age at all.

By her own admission, the sport isn’t exactly well known.

Some people have told her they vaguely remember doing something resembling orienteering in Boy Scouts. Others have absolutely no idea what she’s talking about. When she explains, the light goes on.

“Oh, they often say, “it’s like a scavenger hunt.”

She almost growls at this response, which to a serious orienteer is up there with “your mom wears wigs with chin straps” as an insult.

“Not really,” she says.

In the simplest terms possible, it’s cross-country running on a course with no markers to guide you. You have a map and a compass and figure out how to get from A to B on your own with those checkpoints along the way. First to the finish line wins.

It not only requires great fitness but a strong sense of direction and an ability to solve problems on the fly. Not to mention a high pain tolerance. Not just for the lactic acid that builds up as you run but for the inevitable falls, rolled ankles and nasty collisions with trees branches and logs that result from running with your eyes up to find those checkpoints rather than down at the path.

“I definitely won’t be a leg model,” Waddington laughs.

But back to her roots. She was basically done with it until she discovered the local Don’t Get Lost Adventure Running Series. It was orienteering with a cooler name. There were other kids involved. Suddenly she was interested again.

From there, it was a rapid progression.

Today the 20-year-old Mac kinesiology student has an impressive resume that’s getting longer by the week. Earlier this summer while racing for the junior national team, she finished sixth in the junior world championship in Hungary. Not long after that she was eighth at the World University Championship in Finland. In the relay, she actually finished her leg in fifth.

Next week the Westdale Secondary School grad heads to the Yukon for the North American championships. With a healthy body and some tricks up her sleeve that will prevent her from getting badly lost ever again.

First, when she’s unsure about where she is, the secret is to head to high ground so you can get the lay of the land. That helps, she says. Second, and most important? When you get lost, admit it and retrace your steps until you can figure out where to go.

It’s advice that’s not just good for her. Her grandparents follow it, too.

Yeah, they’re 76 now but still orienteering. In fact, they still run the occasional 24-hour race.

“My grandpa wants me to do one with him,” she says.

That’s remarkable. The fact that they continue to do this and the offer to join him. So will she?

Emma thinks about it for a few moments and chuckles.

“I dunno.”