diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 50a87f4..38e9559 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ The list of configurable values is:
 * localid_var: (str) environment variable to determine the local node rank (default: `SLURM_LOCALID`)
 * tasks_per_node_var: (str) environment variable to determine the tasks per node (default: `SLURM_STEP_TASKS_PER_NDOE`)
 * ntasks_pattern: (str) regular expression pattern to filter the tasks per node (default: `[0-9]+`)
+* wait_timeout: (str) timeout in seconds to wait for a shared-run container to start (default: 10)
+* wait_poll_interval: (str) interval in seconds to poll for a shared-run container to start (default: 0.2)
 
 ### Templating
 
diff --git a/podman_hpc/podman_hpc.py b/podman_hpc/podman_hpc.py
index a8f5131..74e139f 100755
--- a/podman_hpc/podman_hpc.py
+++ b/podman_hpc/podman_hpc.py
@@ -269,6 +269,7 @@ def _shared_run(conf, run_args, **site_opts):
     # Start monitor and run threads
     monitor_thread = None
     run_thread = None
+    proc = None
     if (localid is None or int(localid) == 0):
         monitor_thread = Process(target=monitor, args=(sock_name, ntasks,
                                                        container_name, conf))
@@ -276,21 +277,41 @@ def _shared_run(conf, run_args, **site_opts):
         run_thread = Process(target=shared_run_exec, args=(run_cmd, conf.env))
         run_thread.start()
 
-    # wait for container to exist
-    comm = ["container", "exists", container_name]
-    while podman_devnull(comm, conf) != 0:
-        time.sleep(0.2)
-    comm = ["wait", "--condition", "running", container_name]
-    podman_devnull(comm, conf)
-    proc = Popen(exec_cmd, env=conf.env)
-    proc.communicate()
-    send_complete(sock_name, localid)
-    # Close out threads
-    if monitor_thread:
-        monitor_thread.join()
-    if run_thread:
-        run_thread.join()
-    sys.exit(proc.returncode)
+    try:
+        # wait for container to exist
+        comm = ["container", "exists", container_name]
+        start_time = time.time()
+        while podman_devnull(comm, conf) != 0:
+            time.sleep(conf.wait_poll_interval)
+            if time.time() - start_time > conf.wait_timeout:
+                msg = "Timeout waiting for shared-run start"
+                raise OSError(msg)
+            if run_thread and run_thread.exitcode:
+                raise OSError("Failed to start container")
+        comm = ["wait", "--condition", "running", container_name]
+        podman_devnull(comm, conf)
+        proc = Popen(exec_cmd, env=conf.env)
+        proc.communicate()
+        send_complete(sock_name, localid)
+        # Close out threads
+        if monitor_thread:
+            monitor_thread.join()
+        if run_thread:
+            run_thread.join()
+    except Exception as ex:
+        sys.stderr.write(str(ex))
+        if monitor_thread:
+            sys.stderr.write("Killing monitor thread")
+            monitor_thread.kill()
+        if run_thread:
+            run_thread.kill()
+        if os.path.exists(sock_name):
+            os.remove(sock_name)
+    finally:
+        exit_code = 1
+        if proc:
+            exit_code = proc.returncode
+        sys.exit(exit_code)
 
 
 # podman-hpc call_podman subcommand (default, hidden, passthrough) #########
@@ -350,7 +371,9 @@ def call_podman(ctx, siteconf, help, podman_args, **site_opts):
 
 def shared_run_exec(run_cmd, env):
     proc = Popen(run_cmd, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE, env=env)
-    proc.communicate()
+    out, err = proc.communicate()
+    if proc.returncode != 0:
+        sys.stderr.write(err.decode())
 
 
 def monitor(sockfile, ntasks, container_name, conf):
diff --git a/podman_hpc/siteconfig.py b/podman_hpc/siteconfig.py
index 04afc42..9916e73 100644
--- a/podman_hpc/siteconfig.py
+++ b/podman_hpc/siteconfig.py
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ class SiteConfig:
                      "default_args", "default_run_args",
                      "additional_stores", "hooks_dir",
                      "localid_var", "tasks_per_node_var", "ntasks_pattern",
-                     "config_home", "mksquashfs_bin"]
+                     "config_home", "mksquashfs_bin",
+                     "wait_timeout", "wait_poll_interval"]
     _valid_templates = ["shared_run_args_template",
                         "graph_root_template",
                         "run_root_template",
@@ -64,6 +65,8 @@ class SiteConfig:
     tasks_per_node_var = "SLURM_STEP_TASKS_PER_NODE"
     ntasks_pattern = r'[0-9]+'
     mksquashfs_bin = "mksquashfs.static"
+    wait_poll_interval = 0.2
+    wait_timeout = 10
     shared_run = False
     source = dict()
 
@@ -112,6 +115,11 @@ def __init__(self, squash_dir=None, log_level=None):
                     "--annotation", f"{_HOOKS_ANNO}=true",
                     "--security-opt", "seccomp=unconfined",
                     ]
+        if isinstance(self.wait_poll_interval, str):
+            self.wait_poll_interval = \
+                float(self.wait_poll_interval)
+        if isinstance(self.wait_timeout, str):
+            self.wait_timeout = float(self.wait_timeout)
         if len(self.default_pull_args) == 0:
             self.default_pull_args = [
                     "--root", self.graph_root,
diff --git a/test/mock_bin/mock_podman b/test/mock_bin/mock_podman
index d61ced1..8fb642f 100755
--- a/test/mock_bin/mock_podman
+++ b/test/mock_bin/mock_podman
@@ -11,6 +11,17 @@ elif [ $(echo $@|grep -c 'mksq ') -gt 0 ] ; then
     P=$(echo $@|sed 's/.*mksq -v //'|sed 's/:.*//')
     SQ=$(echo $@|sed 's|.*/sqout/||'|sed 's/ .*//')
     touch $P/$SQ
+elif [ $(echo $@|grep -c 'container exists ') -gt 0 ] ; then
+    if [ ! -z "$MOCK_FAILURE" ] ; then
+        echo "no container" >& 2
+        echo $@ >> $MOCK_OUT
+        exit 1
+    fi
+elif [ $(echo $@|grep -c ' run ') -gt 0 ] && [ ! -z "$MOCK_FAILURE" ] ;then
+    uid=$(echo $@|sed 's/.*--name //'|sed 's/ .*//')
+    echo "Failed to start $uid" >& 2
+    echo $@ >> $MOCK_OUT
+    exit 1
 elif [ $(echo $@|grep -c 'run ') -gt 0 ] ; then
     echo "bogusid"
 fi
diff --git a/test/test_podman_hpc.py b/test/test_podman_hpc.py
index 5dcc025..def94a8 100644
--- a/test/test_podman_hpc.py
+++ b/test/test_podman_hpc.py
@@ -82,11 +82,11 @@ def test_shared_run(monkeypatch, fix_paths, mock_podman, mock_exit):
     phpc.main()
     run = None
     with open(mock_podman) as f:
-        for line in f:
-            items = line.split()
+        for line in f.read().split("\n"):
+            items = line.split(" ")
             if items[0] == "run":
                 run = items
-            elif items[0] == "exec":
+            elif "exec --root" in line:
                 exec = items
     uid = os.getuid()
     assert run is not None
@@ -102,6 +102,21 @@ def test_shared_run(monkeypatch, fix_paths, mock_podman, mock_exit):
     assert "--rm" not in exec
 
 
+def test_run_fail(monkeypatch, fix_paths, mock_podman, mock_exit):
+    sys.argv = ["podman_hpc", "shared-run", "-it", "--rm",
+                "-e", "FAILME=1", "ubuntu", "uptime"]
+    monkeypatch.setenv("SLURM_LOCALID", "0")
+    monkeypatch.setenv("SLURM_STEP_TASKS_PER_NODE", "1")
+    monkeypatch.setenv("PODMANHPC_WAIT_TIMEOUT", "0.5")
+    monkeypatch.setenv("MOCK_FAILURE", "1")
+    phpc.main()
+    run = None
+    out = open(mock_podman).read()
+    assert "run --rm" in out
+    assert "exec --root" not in out
+    fn = f"/tmp/uid-{os.getuid()}-pid-{os.getppid()}.txt"
+
+
 def test_shared_run_auto(monkeypatch, fix_paths, mock_podman, mock_exit):
     sys.argv = ["podman_hpc", "run", "-it", "--rm", "--mpi",
                 "--volume", "/a:/b", "ubuntu", "uptime"]