I og for seg er utforkjøringen kort, men den er vanskelig.

I og for seg is a fixed expression meaning something like in itself, as such, or when considered on its own.

In this sentence, it softens or qualifies the first statement: the downhill section is short in itself, but that does not stop it from being difficult.

So it often introduces a contrast like:

• taken by itself, X is true
• but in practice / in the bigger picture, Y is also true

It is idiomatic, so it is best learned as a whole phrase rather than word by word.

Because Norwegian follows the V2 rule in main clauses. That means the finite verb usually comes in the second position.

Here, I og for seg is placed first. Once that first slot is taken, the verb er has to come next, and the subject utforkjøringen comes after it:

• I og for seg = first position
• er = second position
• utforkjøringen = subject after the verb

This is very normal in Norwegian:

• I dag er jeg trøtt.
• På skolen lærte vi mye.

So the word order is not unusual; it is standard Norwegian sentence structure.

It is a compound noun, which is very common in Norwegian.

It can be broken down like this:

• utfor = downhill / down
• kjøring = driving / riding / going / run
• utforkjøring = a downhill run, descent, or downhill section, depending on context
• utforkjøringen = the downhill run/section

The final part of the compound, kjøring, determines the noun’s gender and basic form.

Norwegian uses compounds much more freely than English, so one long word like this is completely normal.

The ending -en marks the noun as definite singular for a common-gender noun in Bokmål.

So:

• en utforkjøring = a downhill run/section
• utforkjøringen = the downhill run/section

This tells us the sentence is talking about a specific descent that is already known from the context.

A learner should also know that in less formal or more colloquial Bokmål, you may sometimes see utforkjøringa instead of utforkjøringen.

Because den is the pronoun used for a singular common-gender noun.

Since utforkjøringen is common gender, it is referred to as den:

• utforkjøringen → den

Compare:

• en bil → den
• et hus → det

So den here simply means it, referring back to utforkjøringen.

They are predicate adjectives, meaning they come after the verb er and describe the subject.

In Norwegian, predicate adjectives agree with the noun, but in this sentence you do not see much visible change because of the particular adjectives used.

Here:

• utforkjøringen is singular
• so the adjective appears in the appropriate singular form

Examples:

• Utforkjøringen er kort.
• Utforkjøringen er vanskelig.

If you changed the noun to plural, you would see a clearer difference:

• Utforkjøringene er vanskelige.

So the forms in the sentence are normal and grammatically correct.

It can mean different things depending on context.

A very common meaning in everyday Norwegian is a vehicle going off the road. For example, in news language, en utforkjøring can mean a road accident where a car leaves the road.

But in a sentence like this, where something is described as short but difficult, the meaning is more likely a descent, downhill run, or downhill section in some sport or route.

So context is important with this word.

Yes, that is also possible.

Both are grammatical, but the emphasis changes a little.

• I og for seg er utforkjøringen kort ...
  This gives early emphasis to the qualifying phrase i og for seg.

• Utforkjøringen er i og for seg kort ...
  This keeps the subject first and places the qualifier later.

The version in your sentence sounds very natural if the speaker wants to frame the statement from the start as qualified or not the whole story.

Not really. Even though the words individually are simple, the whole phrase functions as an idiomatic expression.

That means it is better to learn it as one chunk:

• i og for seg = in itself / as such / strictly speaking / when taken on its own

Trying to translate each word separately will not usually help much. For learners, the best approach is to recognize the phrase as a set expression and notice how it is used in real sentences.