I signed/paid up in October early bird. My oldest brother signed up about 2 weeks later.
We get our numbers at sign in (7ish). We were on separate name sheets, and he handed my brother #292, and then marked my name off and handed me #293. I recall that there were maybe 8-10 or so "number packets" left in the box. The #500 series were probably handed out to "day of" registrations. I recall a #501 and a #509 (my memory for numbers is really good, everything actually important, not so much)
I am now 99.9% convinced that numbers were sequential, and that puts attendance at low 300's.
As I posted earlier, we did it basically alone. A few times we thought we had hit a wrong turn, as there were zero cyclists ahead or behind us for extended periods of time.
ETA- Just checked my packet. The envelope is sterile. There are no external indications of name/number. I recall that he opened envelope, and peeked inside before handing it over, obviously to double check that it followed numerical sequence.
Last edited by Erzulis Boat; 09-20-23 at 08:32 AM.