1. In a transactional computing environment, a method of requesting a lock on a resource, the method comprising: requesting a lock on a resource, wherein the request for the lock on the resource is specified as a low priority non-blocking request that does not block one or more other requests such that one or more other requests can request a lock on the resource and obtain the lock on the resource in priority to the low priority non-blocking request including when the one or more other requests are made after the low priority non-blocking request; based on the low priority request, maintaining the low priority request in a non-blocking fashion until a predetermined condition occurs; and as a result of the predetermined condition occurring, handling the low priority request such that it is no longer treated as a low priority non-blocking request.