I'm entirely fresh to the scene, only ever doing extremely casual competitions between friends, so I'm coming to the speed run capital of the internet to ask for recommendations. I've played Neon White and Mario Odyssey but haven't really done a "run" with them yet because it seems really daunting to learn even the basics on movement and routing. So anyone got tips/advice for a totally green runner?
If you want to get into speedrunning Mario Odyssey, you can start by doing the shorter speedruns first. These can be found on the category extensions leaderboard. I'd recommend starting with Festival%, where you only have to make it to metro kingdom, and complete the festival. If not, you can jump straight into doing runs of the full game. I'd recommend watching SmallAnt's tutorials for a starter route. He also has a video or two on movement.
Just remember that you won't be the best right away, and that it will take some practice. You should get a personal best time, and then try to improve your own time, rather than comparing your time to the fastest times. Have fun, and I wish you luck on your speedrun journey!