I don't think I would do either - sit out or keep the foot on the gas! By keep your foot on the gas, I assume that's how you got your large chip lead so I'm further assuming that is a loose-aggressive play style. My style is SLA in the early going and gets tighter as the blinds go up but with a large chip stack advantage I will loosen up to play more pots but with a small-ball strategy. So to answer your question, I keep playing but most of my loose play will be small pot and steals and only getting heavily envolved with primium hands. I try to keep the pressure on with first-in raises hoping to steal more than get into a hand but only play hands that have a chance even if only marginal - i.e 5-6s or J-To and better. Any serious playback I fold before I get into big trouble unless I have a very good hand. I'm still trying to build my stack but avoid large pots/loses with marginal hands if possible.
I don't play sherriff although I know its almost expected of the large stack but will occationally if the odds are good enough - i.e 1.8-1 or better and I have a hand that has at least a moderate chance of winning.
I do bully small stacks with better than moderate hands and small-mid pocket pairs but trap with my prima hands AA, KK, QQ and AK. By trap I mean I still raise if first in but will only call if it was raised ahead of me hoping to get a big payday. In other words I'm picking my spots for big-ball aggression while keeping the pressure on with small-ball tactics in general. I have no problem folding garbage hands as I don't want to be taken for goose-loose (and ther-by more likely to get called when on a steal) but rather for exactly what I'm doing - whelding a big stack!

I try to get to the final table with the chip lead and the healthier it is - the better!

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