Caching lots of data in global.asax Application_Start, windows azure role

Question

I am doing a ton of work currently in Application_Start, and it takes an hour or two to cache the 2 gigs of data into memory that make my application operate efficiently.

Using this method, the Azure web role instance(s) are not available until these processees are complete. I am inserting into the HTTPRuntime cache, so I cannot use the WebRole.cs OnStart() or Run() methods (they don't have acceess to this cache).

Can you think of alternate ways that I can get this data loaded into the cache, while also making the website available during this caching period? The website operates fine while the data is loading, just not as fast.

Thanks so much, -Kevin