From (poor) memory, I seem to recall stories of two previous 1K tasks
during competitions (I believe one was in the US, and one possibly in
Australia?). Details are hazy, but I think the number of finishers in
each case was in the very low single digit range. Nothing like 17
finishers.


17-September-1990, New Castle Virginia. 1000k task, 16 finishers.

http://www.brss.net/1000k.htm