diff --git a/src/cmd/dist/test.go b/src/cmd/dist/test.go
index 976e8346ba8ac93b5fb6d9abf1ef41aee05d534b..da5b17980bcece2b44eb31ead125db8dd4cb85bc 100644
--- a/src/cmd/dist/test.go
+++ b/src/cmd/dist/test.go
@@ -542,7 +542,7 @@ func (t *tester) registerTests() {
 			name:    testName,
 			heading: "GOMAXPROCS=2 runtime -cpu=1,2,4 -quick",
 			fn: func(dt *distTest) error {
-				cmd := t.addCmd(dt, "src", t.goTest(), t.timeout(300), "runtime", "-cpu=1,2,4", "-quick")
+				cmd := t.addCmd(dt, "src", t.goTest(), "-short=true", t.timeout(300), "runtime", "-cpu=1,2,4", "-quick")
 				// We set GOMAXPROCS=2 in addition to -cpu=1,2,4 in order to test runtime bootstrap code,
 				// creation of first goroutines and first garbage collections in the parallel setting.
 				setEnv(cmd, "GOMAXPROCS", "2")
diff --git a/src/runtime/runtime_test.go b/src/runtime/runtime_test.go
index 0bdd01b0861bc8491e47396d0640834f0cd26226..018a8dbaa68f54bb576c34547820ba39ebfd9a41 100644
--- a/src/runtime/runtime_test.go
+++ b/src/runtime/runtime_test.go
@@ -18,7 +18,12 @@ import (
 	"unsafe"
 )
 
-var flagQuick = flag.Bool("quick", false, "skip slow tests, for second run in all.bash")
+// flagQuick is set by the -quick option to skip some relatively slow tests.
+// This is used by the cmd/dist test runtime:cpu124.
+// The cmd/dist test passes both -test.short and -quick;
+// there are tests that only check testing.Short, and those tests will
+// not be skipped if only -quick is used.
+var flagQuick = flag.Bool("quick", false, "skip slow tests, for cmd/dist test runtime:cpu124")
 
 func init() {
 	// We're testing the runtime, so make tracebacks show things