test_runner: make it compatible with fake timers #3919

Job	Run time
Build slim tarball	2m 3s
x86_64-darwin: with shared libraries	29m 54s
aarch64-linux: with shared libraries	19m 12s
aarch64-darwin: with shared libraries	22m 14s
x86_64-linux: with shared libraries	24m 4s
	1h 37m 27s

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