yo congrats on the many life changes! the improvement in job condition is not to be underrated, having a job you hate just sucks the life out of you. watched my dad go through that last year, then come out of it this year with a new gig that he really likes. night and day.
fwiw, one thing i like about running is how not time-consuming it is. there's no commute to the gym and only rarely to the track, no real warm-up unless i'm doing speed work (and those workouts are shorter, so it's a wash time-wise). just tie shoes, put on sunscreen and mask, and head out the door. obviously, my runs are longer now than they used to be, but you can gain a lot of fitness with like 4.5-5 hours per week. even now my total running time per week is only 5.5 hours, plus a cumulative hour or so for stretching.
i'm not particularly talented at distance running, either: my history was the same as yours (a casual season of xc in high school during which i ran close to 20 mins). but i'm pretty sure i'll be able to run 18:xx this year, if i stay healthy. that's not very fast, but it's good enough to be top-10 and usually top-3 or 5 in basically any local 5k, which is fun.
that said, i've lost 10 pounds, my strength is basically where it was when i first started lifting weights 11 years ago, and i'm certainly not as explosive as i was in 2016. running is obviously not a great recipe for improving vert, strength, or muscle.
it is fun as hell, though.
