diff --git a/src/parsers/many.c b/src/parsers/many.c
index 6496bbe61860a9a20c83b2eff6ab007c630a3e77..071e3fcd2d30ed35f4622962751ebc63bea3d37c 100644
--- a/src/parsers/many.c
+++ b/src/parsers/many.c
@@ -10,7 +10,10 @@ typedef struct {
 
 static HParseResult *parse_many(void* env, HParseState *state) {
   HRepeat *env_ = (HRepeat*) env;
-  HCountedArray *seq = h_carray_new_sized(state->arena, (env_->count > 0 ? env_->count : 4));
+  size_t size = env_->count;
+  if(size <= 0) size = 4;
+  if(size > 1024) size = 1024;  // let's try parsing some elements first...
+  HCountedArray *seq = h_carray_new_sized(state->arena, size);
   size_t count = 0;
   HInputStream bak;
   while (env_->min_p || env_->count > count) {