OLYMPIC marathon runner Liz Yelling's medal hopes in tomorrow's race have been foretold in a Chinese fortune cookie.

The 33-year-old runner from Poole was stunned by the message when she broke open the biscuit after a meal with husband Martin.

The athlete decided to go out to a local American Chinese restaurant to get in the mood before setting out from Poole for the Beijing Olympics.

"Perhaps the best thing that happened took me a little by surprise and was spookily coincidental," she wrote in her blog on realbuzz.com, the healthy active living website.

"When I opened mine - would you believe it? - it said: Remember, endurance makes gold'. I hope that's a good omen," she said.

Liz is now waiting to see if any of the six numbers on the fortune cookie message - 11, 14, 18, 22, 26, 41 - provide more good luck by matching her race number.

Her young Parkstone neighbour, eight-year-old Georgie Cruse-Drew, who designed special flags for Liz's marathon water bottles, hopes the inspirational messages she included will also spur her on.

The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist in 2006, who was Team GB's top finisher in the Athens Olympics in 2004, enjoyed her time at the Macau holding camp, where she met the Princess Royal and fine-tuned her training.

"I want to have a great race," she said on her blog. "I will have a great race and if I'm realistic a top 20 finish and a blinder for top 15.

"And there are my dreams. Well, we'll have to wait and see."

The women's marathon takes place at 12.30am Sunday, UK time.