I failed

Yes, I failed on this 600km brevet. I gave up after a good 100km. It was mostly due to weather conditions, but not only.
The first 75 km went fine, I rode with a group of 6-8 other cyclists and passed the first hills. It was fun to go downhill in the dark on unkown roads with speeds of about 50km/h. After 2 1/2 hours I decided to take a short food break, so I splitted from the group. After eating I heard the first thunder coming closer. There was lightning on the horizon for over an hour already, but it was unclear when I would hit the storm. Well, it was quite short after the break. Just a few km after the food break I had to stop again and put on my rain clothes. Briefly after that the real rain started. On the next village I stopped and thought about waiting to pass by the rain, but decided to go on. Just on the road the weather became really worse. The rain was more than heavy and the thunderstorm was impressive. On a crossroad I stopped and sheltered under a porch for half an hour. When I thought the weather would be better I started again, but then up on the hill, the weather was not better and it was not too comfortable. The last few km took a long time with all those breaks and delays. Reaching Oerlinghausen I took a longer break and waited until the weather became better. I don't know how long exactly I waited, but it was quite some time. And I thought a lot about the risk of cycling during lightning: I guess the risk is not too high, but the next day when I read that three ppl died in eastern Germany that particular saturday, hit by lightning, I thought my decision to wait for the lighning to pass by was good.
When the weather finally became better I started off again, but lost track and drove in a wrong direction for a couple of km. I went back to Oerlinghausen and searched for the right way, I nearly found it (in fact I was still on a slightly wrong route, but with the right destination) and went on to Verl. When I reached Verl it was late already and I thought of giving up. Opportunity was good, I was close to home and giving up now would bring me in bed soon. If going on I had to increase speed, because I had fallen back in time down to an average speed of only 14 km/h already (my average riding speed was still quite good with something a abit more than 25 km/h, but all those delays and the wrong way took their time). While I knew it would not be too difficult to reach the next checkpoint in time, I also calculated that I hadn't too much spare time to do a longer recreational break in the late morning which I guess was needed, because after the morning the more hilly part of the ride would have begun.
Also the latest weather forecast (got it by phone) was not too optimistic for the next day, lot of rain and not too high temperatues.
All in all I decided to break off and try again in some weeks.
The next attempt will be end of June in Hamburg.
I guess it was okay to give up, but on the other hand it would have been great to finish against all these odds. Well, next time...