Is that a legal strategy? If so, does it affect timing at all? Basically what I want to know is, if I get the meatball before every run, does it change the timing of my actual run at all?

For those that don't know, if you complete the first practice stage, the next time you start the main game on that same reset, you get a meatball which is basically like a free refill of life.

A core principle of speedrunning revolves around the timer starting given a specific criterion. In this game, it's when you gain control of your character. So the timer would have to start when you gain control in the practice stage, unless you were to reset afterwards (to start a new run). Resets are allowed in some games (to retain some benefit or manipulate RNG) so the question would normally be up for debate, but since you lose the meatball on reset there's no way to make it speedrun-viable.

Gotcha. I figured as such. Once I was able to complete my first run, I dropped the 'ball and went without it. Honestly, the parts of the game still giving me real issues are actually the driving stages. They're kicking my butt. I cannot hit the darned cars with bullets at all sometimes, so I slow down (and lose a ton of time), sometimes crashing anyways! haha.

Honestly this game surprised me. This is a really fun run, if not a little annoying with the shooter stages and driving stages. I was able to get my first 1CC today, and I'm hoping for a deathless run tomorrow.