As you know, I'm new to the concept of speed running and not much good at it. As in, I often died in games. This got me thinking. How about speed runs with the amount of times you have to restart? Not the entire game, I mean, when you die in a level, you have to respawn in the spot. Of course, games with unlimited continues will have to do. Count the times that continue screen is displayed before going for it again.
Not sure what you mean, but I will assume you are asking about if deaths count to a speedrun.
For most speedruns, dying is fine and it is counted towards your final time, though most of the time it just loses time (but it's okay if you are starting out). There are exceptions of games that don't allow deaths or continues (in case of continues, some arcade titles that require coins for extra continues for example), but what I described is the usual scenario.
Heck, dying can be strats sometimes.