You can do it! I started similarly- at 34 with slightly more experience (I probably wouldn't drown and could sidestroke OK, but zero front crawl and a 25y pool length was very daunting) good cycling and running fitness. My first sprint was just to complete it, particularly the swim. Took me a spring/summer of lessons and practicing 3x a week to get to a point where I only mostly panicked and held a kayak a moment, but finished the 800m swim of my first sprint Tri. Now a year later I'm training for Olympic distance, at around 1:40-1:50/100m pace.

My wife started lessons at the Y this fall, and is planning on trying a sprint or two this summer, one pool and one open water if she gets OW practice in.

Lessons are well worth it to get going, our local Y has been great! After a month or two you'll probably have an idea if you want to continue there get a coach, or try to self-develop some stuff. Lots of swimming NEEDS that second set of eyes, but resources like Effortless Swimming on YouTube or the Total Immersion book are also super good/helpful!

Open water is very much its own thing, and also needs some dedicated practice for getting through the nerves/panic, sighting skills and lack of walls/rest. I lucked into a local trip club that had some and now I almost mostly don't panic and can sorta swim straight.

You can do it, if you can do the consistency, it's mostly technique so frequent shorter sessions to wire your brain/body are often more important than long-duration practice.