diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index d666290..ea68119 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ LDFLAGS := -X github.com/docker/containerd.GitCommit=${GIT_COMMIT} ${LDFLAGS}
 TEST_TIMEOUT ?= 5m
 TEST_SUITE_TIMEOUT ?= 10m
 
+RUNTIME ?= runc
+
 # if this session isn't interactive, then we don't want to allocate a
 # TTY, which would fail, but if it is interactive, we do want to attach
 # so that the user can send e.g. ^C through.
@@ -86,14 +88,14 @@ shell: dbuild
 	$(DOCKER_RUN) bash
 
 test: validate install bundles-rootfs
-	go test -bench=. -v $(shell go list ./... | grep -v /vendor | grep -v /integration-test)
+	go test -bench=. -v $(shell go list ./... | grep -v /vendor | grep -v /integration-test ) -runtime=$(RUNTIME)
 ifneq ($(wildcard /.dockerenv), )
 	cd integration-test ; \
 	go test -check.v -check.timeout=$(TEST_TIMEOUT) timeout=$(TEST_SUITE_TIMEOUT) $(TESTFLAGS) github.com/docker/containerd/integration-test
 endif
 
 bench: shim validate install bundles-rootfs
-	go test -bench=. -v $(shell go list ./... | grep -v /vendor | grep -v /integration-test)
+	go test -bench=. -v $(shell go list ./... | grep -v /vendor | grep -v /integration-test) -runtime=$(RUNTIME)
 
 validate: fmt lint
 
diff --git a/runtime/runtime_test.go b/runtime/runtime_test.go
index 49b4711..7b737a5 100644
--- a/runtime/runtime_test.go
+++ b/runtime/runtime_test.go
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 	"syscall"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
+	"flag"
 
 	utils "github.com/docker/containerd/testutils"
 )
@@ -16,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 var (
 	devNull = "/dev/null"
 	stdin   io.WriteCloser
+	runtimeTool = flag.String("runtime", "runc", "Runtime to use for this test")
 )
 
 // Create containerd state and oci bundles directory
@@ -145,7 +147,7 @@ func BenchmarkBusyboxSh(b *testing.B) {
 			Root:    utils.StateDir,
 			ID:      bundleName,
 			Bundle:  filepath.Join(wd, bundlePath),
-			Runtime: "runc",
+			Runtime: *runtimeTool,
 			Shim:    "containerd-shim",
 			Timeout: 15 * time.Second,
 		})
@@ -165,7 +167,7 @@ func benchmarkStartContainer(b *testing.B, c Container, s Stdio, bundleName stri
 		b.Fatalf("Error starting container %v", err)
 	}
 
-	kill := exec.Command("runc", "kill", bundleName, "KILL")
+	kill := exec.Command(c.Runtime(), "kill", bundleName, "KILL")
 	kill.Run()
 
 	// wait for kill to finish. selected wait time is arbitrary
diff --git a/supervisor/sort_test.go b/supervisor/sort_test.go
index 74a4e08..3a419db 100644
--- a/supervisor/sort_test.go
+++ b/supervisor/sort_test.go
@@ -4,11 +4,16 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"sort"
 	"testing"
+	"flag"
 
 	"github.com/docker/containerd/runtime"
 	"github.com/docker/containerd/specs"
 )
 
+var (
+	runtimeTool = flag.String("runtime", "runc", "Runtime to use for this test")
+)
+
 type testProcess struct {
 	id string
 }