He was born in Inverness and first took part in athletics at primary school.[1] He was with Inverness Harriers for 13 years and was the first member of the club to win a world medal.[2] He left the club and joined Team East Lothian in November 2014, when Inverness Harriers were unable to agree to his request for them to pay part of the salary of his coach, Piotr Haczek.[3]
He was educated at Inverness Royal Academy[3] before commencing studies at Heriot Watt University, graduating with MA (Hons) in International Business Management and Languages degree and a winner of the Watt Club Medal for Languages in 2011.[4] After graduating he took on a part-time job as an athletics development officer in East Lothian.[5]
On 18 January 2014, while competing at the Scottish National Open in Glasgow he set a personal best of recorded 47.09 seconds, which was the second-fastest time for Scottish men's indoor 400m.[8] On 15 February 2014, he lowered his personal best for 400 Metres on an indoor track to 46.58 seconds, when competing at a British Athletics Grand Prix in Birmingham.[9] He was then selected to run in the Great Britain 4 × 400m relay team at the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships, running the third leg and winning a silver medal.[10] He then went to Florida for a month for some intensive training before the Commonwealth Games.[11]
In August 2014, Bowie competed in the 4 × 400 m relay for Scotland team in the xx Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.[1] The relay team finished fifth and set a new Scottish record.[12] Bowie later named his part in this as one of the highlights of his career.[13]
In January 2015, in the first international match of the British Athletics indoor season he ran in the individual 400m, winning the race with a time of 47.38 seconds.[14]
In August 2016 Bowie was appointed as Performance Manager for Scottish Gymnastics, and the following February he was named as team manager for the Scottish gymnastics team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.[13] In April 2017 he announced his retirement from competition. He has continued to be involved with athletics as a coach with Team East Lothian,[3] where he has coached, among others, para-athlete Maria Lyle since 2017.[15]