diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
index 3958425..d8a4fdb 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Cache Ollama models
         id: cache-ollama
         uses: actions/cache@v4
-        with: # make the cache key based on where the OLLAMA_MODEL constant is defined.
+        with: # cache key is based on where OLLAMA_MODEL is defined.
           path: ~/.ollama/models  # default directory for Ollama models
           key: ollama-${{ hashFiles('./src/exchange/providers/ollama.py') }}
 
@@ -70,10 +70,13 @@ jobs:
             # Block using the ready endpoint mentioned in ollama/ollama#3341
             time curl --retry 5 --retry-connrefused --retry-delay 0 -sf http://localhost:11434
 
-      - name: Pull Ollama model
+      # First time pull, and first time execution of a model is slow, so we do
+      # this prior to running tests. This also reduces the chance of flakiness.
+      - name: Pull and Test Ollama model
         run: |  # get the OLLAMA_MODEL from ./src/exchange/providers/ollama.py
           OLLAMA_MODEL=$(uv run python -c "from src.exchange.providers.ollama import OLLAMA_MODEL; print(OLLAMA_MODEL)")
           ollama pull $OLLAMA_MODEL || cat ollama.log
+          ollama run $OLLAMA_MODEL hello || cat ollama.log
 
       - name: Run Ollama tests
         run: uv run pytest tests -m integration -k ollama