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As the big chill hits America, runners are heading indoors - but many are finding all the treadmills are already taken.

However, a Chilean firm may have the answer.

Oxford Fitness has built a giant running machine with space for ten runners at once.

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Over the weekend, Oxford plans to host a pair of two-hour races on the machine in Santiago, Chile, incraeasing the speed until only one runner is left.

Over the weekend, Oxford plans to host a pair of two-hour races on the machine in Santiago, Chile.

'Oxford Treadmill Fitness invites us to participate in a form of racing like never before,' the firm says.

'The idea is that the last competitor who falls, wins the race.'

The site claims the contests won't be for the faint hearted.

For the first of two races, the treadmill's speed will be set at a steady 6 miles per hour to test stamina. 

Designed by Chilean company Oxford Fitness, which sells gym equipment, it is 5 meters high, 3 meters wide and 6 meters long. 

Speed increases in increments of just over half a mile per hour all the way up to roughly 10 miles per hour, or a 6-minute per mile pace.

During the second race, organizers will gradually edge up the pace so that runners who can't keep up get ejected off the back. 

The giant running machine with space for TEN people

The last runner remaining upright and on board will be declared the winner.  

'When you run outdoors with a friend, you naturally lock into a pace so I don't see why it would be a big deal to do the same on a treadmill,' said Runners World's Scott Douglas.

Oxford Fitness and its creative partner, 10:10, plan a national tour with the machine and hope to lure Erwin Valdebenito, the Chilean holder of a Guinness World Record for running 24 hours non-stop on a regular treadmill, to super-size his efforts on their mill.

It is unclear how the runners reached the control buttons for the giant treadmill

The speed will gradually increase until all the runners have fallen off