diff --git a/scripts/k8s_runtime_smoke_check.sh b/scripts/k8s_runtime_smoke_check.sh
index 08495cb..6daea5d 100755
--- a/scripts/k8s_runtime_smoke_check.sh
+++ b/scripts/k8s_runtime_smoke_check.sh
@@ -136,6 +136,13 @@ def get_collector_pod(exclude_names=None):
     raise TimeoutError(f'no ready collector pod found; last pods={last}')
 
 
+def pod_start_epoch(pod):
+    timestamp = pod.get('status', {}).get('startTime') or pod.get('metadata', {}).get('creationTimestamp')
+    if not timestamp:
+        return 0
+    return dt.datetime.fromisoformat(timestamp.replace('Z', '+00:00')).timestamp()
+
+
 def exec_python(pod, code, args):
     command = [kubectl, '-n', namespace, 'exec', '-i', pod, '--', 'python3', '-', *args]
     proc, item = capture(command, input_text=code, timeout=wait_seconds + 60)
@@ -414,7 +421,8 @@ try:
     if rollout['exit_code'] != 0:
         raise RuntimeError('collector deployment rollout is not healthy')
     pod_name, pod_obj = get_collector_pod()
-    before = wait_for_valid_collector(pod_name, 0, 'initial')
+    initial_after_mtime = max(0, pod_start_epoch(pod_obj) - 5)
+    before = wait_for_valid_collector(pod_name, initial_after_mtime, 'initial')
     before_mtime = before['mtime']
     old_file = before['output_files'][0]