In January 2012 Rowland ran a 70 km race from Licanray to Villarica in the south of Chile. He finished in 3rd place after defeating Argentinian athlete, Edgar Ezequiel Orozco, in a sprint finish. This was his first podium finish. In March 2012, Rowland competed in his first multi-day stage race, the RacingThePlanet 4 Deserts: Atacama Crossing. This race takes place in six stages over seven days and covers a distance of 250 km. Rowland finished in 9th place overall, winning his age group division of 20–29 years. He was the youngest finisher in the Top 10. At the end of September 2012, Rowland quit his job with AngloAmerican and took up trail running full-time. He ran several more races towards the end of 2012, and in November he won his first trail race. The Ruta del Condor is a popular 50 km route from Cajón del Maipo to Santiago, Chile, and Rowland won in a time of 4h54min. Rowland returned to the 4Deserts: Atacama Crossing race in March 2013. He won the first five stages of the race, and came fourth on the final stage, winning the event overall in a time of 26:17:51, nearly two hours faster than his first attempt. Rowland's second major race of 2013 was the 250 km, multi-stage desert race, the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon in South Africa, which he won in a course-record time of 22:02:57. Rowland was joined in this race by his father and brother, who completed their first multi-stage race. His father, Jonathan Rowland, finished in 20th place in a time of 35:25:27, and his brother, Brian Rowland, finished 32nd in a time of 41:02:08. Rowland's 2014 season started off with a podium finish when he took third place in his age group and in the overall race in the Columbia Trail Challenge in Olmué, Chile. In May, he travelled to Cusco, Peru for the Beyond the Ultimate Jungle Ultra, a race from the Andes to the Amazon. He won in a time of 27:01:20, winning the first four of five stages  Rowland moved to Switzerland in August 2014 to further his running career in Europe. He finished 5th in the 55km Humani' Trail in Les Diablerets .