diff --git a/ci.sh b/ci.sh
index f808decdae..5729f99381 100755
--- a/ci.sh
+++ b/ci.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ export PYRIGHT_PYTHON_IGNORE_WARNINGS=1
 echo "::group::Environment"
 uname -a
 env | sort
+date
 echo "::endgroup::"
 
 # Curl's built-in retry system is not very robust; it gives up on lots of
@@ -126,9 +127,34 @@ else
     # support subprocess spawning with coverage.py
     echo "import coverage; coverage.process_startup()" | tee -a "$INSTALLDIR/../sitecustomize.py"
 
+    # set the location of .coveragerc for multi-process coverage to work
+    COVERAGE_PROCESS_START=$(pwd)/../pyproject.toml
+
+    PYTEST_CMD="pytest -r a -p trio._tests.pytest_plugin --junitxml=../test-results.xml --run-slow --verbose --durations=10 $flags ${INSTALLDIR}"
+
+    RUN_TESTS="coverage run --rcfile=../pyproject.toml -m $PYTEST_CMD"
+
+    # timeout can be changed with an environment variable, but if empty or unset
+    # default to 9m to not hit 10m limit
+    if [ -z "$TESTS_TIMEOUT" ]; then
+        TESTS_TIMEOUT=7m
+    fi
+
+    # if available, timeout coverage/pytest with SIGINT before the CI runner kills it, to
+    # get in-progress data and print out the slowest tests
+    if type timeout > /dev/null; then
+        RUN_TESTS="timeout --signal=INT $TESTS_TIMEOUT $RUN_TESTS"
+    elif type gtimeout > /dev/null; then
+        RUN_TESTS="gtimeout --signal=INT $TESTS_TIMEOUT $RUN_TESTS"
+    fi
+
+    # print datetime
+    date
+
     echo "::endgroup::"
     echo "::group:: Run Tests"
-    if COVERAGE_PROCESS_START=$(pwd)/../pyproject.toml coverage run --rcfile=../pyproject.toml -m pytest -r a -p trio._tests.pytest_plugin --junitxml=../test-results.xml --run-slow ${INSTALLDIR} --verbose --durations=10 $flags; then
+
+    if $RUN_TESTS; then
         PASSED=true
     else
         PASSED=false