diff --git a/.github/workflows/check.yaml b/.github/workflows/check.yaml
index aa74a8f1..0c93f170 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/check.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/check.yaml
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ jobs:
           fetch-depth: 0
           persist-credentials: false
       - name: ⬇️ Install test data
+        id: test-data
+        background: true
         run: git submodule update --init --depth 1 tests/html5lib-tests tests/conformance/unicodetools
       - name: 🟢 Install Node
         # zizmor: ignore[cache-poisoning] no cache: input is set, so setup-node writes no restorable cache
@@ -43,6 +45,7 @@ jobs:
         uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@c18668ad3cf93ea998bef934396af7bb5c839dc7 # v10.2.0
         with:
           enable-cache: false
+      - wait: test-data
       - name: ✅ Run ${{ matrix.py }}
         run: uvx --with tox-uv tox run --skip-missing-interpreters false -e ${{ matrix.py }}
         env:
@@ -75,6 +78,8 @@ jobs:
           fetch-depth: 0
           persist-credentials: false
       - name: ⬇️ Install test data
+        id: test-data
+        background: true
         run: git submodule update --init --depth 1 tests/html5lib-tests tests/conformance/unicodetools
       - name: 🟢 Install Node
         # zizmor: ignore[cache-poisoning] no cache: input is set, so setup-node writes no restorable cache
@@ -85,6 +90,7 @@ jobs:
         uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@c18668ad3cf93ea998bef934396af7bb5c839dc7 # v10.2.0
         with:
           enable-cache: false
+      - wait: test-data
       - name: ✅ Run ${{ matrix.py }}
         run: uvx --with tox-uv tox run --skip-missing-interpreters false -e ${{ matrix.py }}
         env:
@@ -130,13 +136,14 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/setup-node@820762786026740c76f36085b0efc47a31fe5020 # v7.0.0
         with:
           node-version: "22"
-      - name: 📦 Install the Node oracle deps (jsdom, DOMPurify, parse5)
-        run: npm ci
-        working-directory: tools/bench/node
-      - name: 🔄 Install uv
-        uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@c18668ad3cf93ea998bef934396af7bb5c839dc7 # v10.2.0
-        with:
-          enable-cache: false
+      - parallel:
+          - name: 📦 Install the Node oracle deps (jsdom, DOMPurify, parse5)
+            run: npm ci
+            working-directory: tools/bench/node
+          - name: 🔄 Install uv
+            uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@c18668ad3cf93ea998bef934396af7bb5c839dc7 # v10.2.0
+            with:
+              enable-cache: false
       - name: ✅ Run the conformance suites
         run: uvx --with tox-uv tox run -e conformance
         env: