As you mentioned, paying down a debt but I would not take a tax hit to do with an early withdraw; all proceeds are taxed upon withdraw at your current tax rate, therefore you may want to wait until your income drops from retirement....
For myself, I have bought Gold Mining Stocks, and a few Natural Gas oriented stocks and I take a nice profit on dips (so far this year I allowed 23K to become 37K in my traditional IRA and my Roth's play ca$h went from 53K to $69K. I am no longer considering paying down my home, but will allow my capital to grow and use some the dividends/proceeds to be drawn out.
Once your money is gone, so are your options. Keep your options open!
That current tax rate might just jump up pretty steeply on January 1.