Almost the same thing happened to me once but with the addition that I had the flat during a downpour. Took me five minutes to find an area out of the rain. Replaced the tube and bent/broke the valve stem though in my case, I did not have sufficient pressure in the tire to hold the tub closed and the inner part fell into tube. I was so fed up that I called the wife for a ride - only the second time in decades of commuting. The other time was when my handlebar broke.

Yes, these challenges are character-building and anything is better than driving in traffic. Your thread title should have been "horrible, but could have been worse"