Dying is fine. You can even game over as long as you complete the run
Yeah dying is fine only if you game over and didnt save is when a reset is mandatory
In the first (and not first) runs you are going to die a lot, and when i say a lot, it's a lot. So don't mind if you die, just complete runs. Also, as i suppose, you are a beginner in speedrunning, so i recommend you watching the speedrun 101 of Ganes Done Quick Hotfix and also the two podcasts of cheese05 and simply "Two Dads, One Show", they explain things that you may encounter during this hobby.
The thing is that as you may have seen, after each star they choose the third option after the coin count, that is "Do not save", so it is risky that if you game over then you can't recover. So i recommend for first runs, until you feel that you die less, to save in certain spots, like before a difficult part for you. Or even in first runs, just save everywhere (you know, ez timesave later :))
I usually save instead of just mash B. Just for safety purposes. I am starting out too.
We would like to announce that VC and EMU subcategories are now active on the Stage RTA leaderboards (under "Levels"). Stage RTA involves collecting all the stars in a given stage including the 100 coin star. Timing starts on star select and ends upon collecting the final star. You are allowed to us